The large wave of illegal migrants in recent weeks has forced many members of the European Union (EU) to introduce stricter border controls, and the most worrying are the calls to raise the wires between the EU and third countries.
Europe is less and less empathetic towards migrants, and countries are planning to deal seriously with people who try to enter the eurozone illegally.
On that way, one of the routes is, as before, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and a huge number of migrants are now trying to reach EU soil by sea – pressure on Italy) and through Belarus to Poland and Germany.
Some fear that the new migrant wave could be bigger than the one in 2015.
Therefore, all signals indicate that the eastern borders of BiHwill also be under even greater pressure in the coming months, and official data obtained show that the alarm has already been set off a long time ago if you compare the first six months of this year with the first half of 2022.
Members of the BiH Border Police, in the first six months of this year, detected more than 4,500 persons illegally crossing the state border, as well as attempting to illegally cross the state border, in contrast to last year when, in the same period, more than 2,700 persons were detected.
That is even 66.67 percent more compared to the same period last year.
According to citizenship, there are the most citizens of Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, Morocco and Bangladesh.
The largest number of illegal migrants was detected outside the area of border crossings, i.e. in the border zone, and in the first six months, 33 criminal offenses of “Human smuggling” and“Organizing a group or association to commit the criminal offense of migrant smuggling” were recorded.
“Members of the BiH Border Police with all available material and technical means and personnel capacities take measures and actions, in accordance with the law, with the aim of effective protection of the state border and suppression of illegal migration,” said the Border Police.
The fact that Slovenia has introduced police checkpoints near the border crossings with Croatia, following the example of Italy, shows that countries are already taking serious steps.
Zoran Niceno, the head of the border administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, confirmed that there is a lot of pressure on Croatia as well. He said that the Croatian police recorded 54,593 illegal border crossings this year, which is 140 percent more than last year.
“Everyone asked for asylum. That says a lot. It shows that smugglers and migrants know the EU system well, that by giving fingerprints they know that there is little chance that they will be returned and they know that they have freedom of movement while in Croatia,” said Niceno.
In Europe, the trend of illegal border crossings is increasing, and it started in 2022. The EU border agency (Frontex) detected around 330,000 illegal border crossings last year, an increase of 64 percent compared to 2021 and the highest number since 2016.
The biggest increases were recorded on the Western Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean routes with figures increasing by 136 percent and 108 percent, respectively. The Western Balkan route alone accounted for 45 percent of all irregular entries in 2022, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
