Qatar Charity allocated a total of 620.341 KM (364,000 U.S. dollars) intended to support migration management in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Tuesday here, local media reported Tuesday.
The agreement was signed between Faisal Rashid A. T. Alfehaida, assistant to the Executive Director for Operations and International Cooperation and Drazen Rozic, project coordinator for Migration Situation Management in BiH in the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Rozic said that the money will be spent on the management, improvement of living conditions and security of migrants in reception centers located in Una Sana Canton (USC), some 300 kilometers from the capital Sarajevo.
He explained that currently there are 3,561 migrants accommodated in reception centers in USC, that are under the authorization of BiH Ministry of Security and IOM, and that the money will also be used for the improvement of existing infrastructure and expansion of accommodation capacities.
For his part, A. T. Alfehaida said that the aim is to increase the cooperation between the organizations and maintenance of good relations.
“This cooperation confirms the strong and good relations between Qatar Charity and IOM,” A. T. Alfehaida said, adding that they will keep trying to strengthen and develop the cooperation in the coming period.
He noted that Qatar Charity’s work in BiH started in 1994, first in Sarajevo, and then in several cities and municipalities throughout BiH.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants passed through the so-called “Balkan route” in 2015, trying to reach Western Europe. BiH was then not part of that route. The increasing number of migrants was recorded from the end of 2017, and since January this year, over 23,902 migrants and refugees arrived through Serbia and Montenegro, compared to a mere 755 in 2017.
(Source: Sarajevo Times, Xinhua, Photo: Fena, Hazim Aljovic)
