In the shortened procedure for the acceptance of migrants, according to the readmission agreement, 760 migrants have been returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina from Croatia so far this year, while in the regular procedure the Service for Affairs with Foreigners accepted 308 migrants, said the director of this service Žarko Laketa today.
He emphasized that this year, the request for readmission of 981 migrants from Croatia was rejected under the abbreviated procedure, while 746 migrants were rejected in the regular procedure.
Laketa explained that according to the agreement on readmission from 2007 and 2011 between the Council of Ministers on the one hand and the European Commission and Croatia on the other, it is important to prove that the migrants entered Croatia from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“In that case, we confirmed that 760 entered Croatia from Bosnia and Herzegovina and we accepted them, but we did not confirm why they were rejected for 981,” said Laketa.
He pointed out that according to the readmission agreement with Croatia, the number of migrants who should be returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina is over 1,000, and that this number is not alarming, and he emphasized that so far there have been no abuses of the agreement either by Croatia or of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The process of organized return of migrants from the Republic of Croatia to the Lipa Migrant Center near Bihać continued today. Members of the Service for Affairs with Foreigners and the Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina unofficially escorted around 70 people in buses from the Izačić Border Crossing to the Lipa location today.
Last week, more than 200 migrants were returned from the Republic of Croatia to the center of Lipa in the same organized manner. The migrants were transported to this border crossing, which is 12 kilometers from the center of Bihać, under the escort and control of the Police of the Republic of Croatia.
The citizens of Bihać, the representatives of the city and cantonal authorities are increasingly complaining about the lack of any official and more detailed information about this process.
Probably because of this, during one of last week’s transports of migrants, the column secured by the Service for Foreign Affairs and the Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina was stopped by members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Una-Sana Canton (MUP USK).
“During that stop, our members received information that the Police of the Republic of Croatia brought a group of 93 migrants to the Izačić Border Crossing, who, in accordance with the Agreement on the Readmission of Migrants, were transferred to our country, i.e. the area of our canton,” said the spokesperson of the Una Sana Canton, Bahrudin Dželalagić.
After that, the Prime Minister of the Una-Sana Canton, Mustafa Ružnić, said that he is still waiting for an official answer as to what it is about and why hundreds of migrants are returning to Bihać in an organized manner.
“Who is doing this, who is allowing this kind of entry into the country? I officially asked for an explanation from the Ministry of Security and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Suddenly, everyone is an actor and nobody knows anything… I openly ask if we will go to Bihać again tomorrow to have several thousand migrants who were returned in an organized manner from the Republic of Croatia,” said Ružnić.
Unofficially, this procedure of returning migrants from the Republic of Croatia to the Lipa Migrant Center near Bihać will continue in the coming days.
