Sarajevo is hosting a large regional conference on migration “Sarajevo migration dialogue”, which is attended by ministers from the region, representatives of the European Union (EU),and international organizations. The Minister of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Selmo Cikotic, talked about the challenges and trends in the field of migration.
“This conference is the first in the region that some of the countries will organize on this topic. I believe that BiH has a lot of reasons to organize such a conference. You remember that a year ago we had a serious problem when it comes to the presence and movement of illegal migrants on the territory of BiH, “ noted Cikotic.
The conference, as he pointed out, emphasized the issue of illegal migration as one of the most complex security challenges of today.
“The conference was not designed to address the problems on the Belarusian-Polish border, but we will certainly have an approach in which we view illegal migration as one of the global security challenges, which we do not view only from a security point of view. We understand that illegal migration has political, economic, demographic, civilizational, cultural, and of course,security aspects that are integrated into this process of movement, integration, residence, stay, and readmission of illegal migrants, “ Cikotic said.
As stated by Minister Cikotic, the conference discussed the issues of migration management, border control, as well as future challenges when it comes to the field of migration, within three sessions.
“This is the result of a much higher level of cooperation between all security agencies and structures dealing with border and territory control. We were able to identify and arrest several groups involved in the smuggling of migrants. In a way, we discouraged those who smuggled migrants and those who redirected migrants in order to send them in some other directions. We now see that a large number of migrants from Serbia have chosen to move north to Hungary and Romania, expecting to have easier entry and passage into EU countries at the northern borders of the EU,” told Cikotic.
As a problem in keeping BiH Cikotic also mentioned the small number of border policemen who are currently available in BiH.
“Regardless of the fact that we obtained the decision of the Council of Ministers and got approval for the hiring of 300 new border policemen, we have not yet successfully completed the competition for the first 125 police officers and 25 junior inspectors. However, what we did, by the Republika Srpska (RS) Ministry of the Internal Affairs, the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies, and State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) is that we have increased the number of police officers assisting the Border Police, especially on the eastern border of BiH. We increased the quality of cooperation with the Intelligence Agency and EUFOR, and by synchronizing all these activities we have improved the quality of the border and made our route less attractive, “ Security Minister of BiH, Selmo Cikotic explained, among other things.
E.Dz.
Source: BHRT
