Over 10,000 migrants and refugees are in Bosnia now, of whom only 160 have requested asylum according to government figures.
Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektic has said that, as of Tuesday, there were 10,555 migrants registered in the country. He added that only 160 of them had requested asylum.
The minister was quoted by the media as saying that the Bosnian authorities are introducing rules for migrants to comply with since they do not have the right to disturb the normal life and functioning of local communities. ”For all those that arrive,” Mektic said, ”we have the duty to provide full protection and humanitarian treatment but also to draw up rules of behavior.”
In reality, Bosnia is not managing to provide migrants with full assistance. Media reports on the situation in the makeshift camp of Vucijak, in the Bihac area in the country’s northwest, are alarming. For the 700 migrants transferred in the past 10 days from the Bihac center, the only humanitarian organization is the Red Cross, which has set up about 50 tents and set a quarantine for those with tuberculosis and hepatitis. Many have scabies. There is not enough food in the camp and the Red Cross has asked for international assistance, Info Migrants reports.
On Wednesday the EU announced that it would be providing 14.8 million euros in aid.
This includes €13 million of support to migration management – for which an implementation agreement was signed on 21 June with the International Organisation for Migration – and €1.8 million for humanitarian aid.
This brings EU overall assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina to cope with the increased migratory flow since 2018 to €24 million (€20.2 million from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance and €3.8 million of humanitarian aid). This is in addition to €24.6 million assistance the European Union has provided to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the area of asylum, migration and border management since 2007.
