Some 20,000 migrants have entered Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) since the beginning of this year until Nov. 4, Chairman of BiH’s Council of Ministers Denis Zvizdic said at a press conference here on Wednesday.
On its regular session on Wednesday, Council of Ministers (CoM) adopted measures aiming for “better border control, more effective fight against illegal migration”.
The priorities of BiH government are strengthening of the BiH Border Police with the aim of better border control and prevention of illegal entry, the realization of readmission agreement, capacity building in the area of asylum and intensification of the fight against migrants’ smuggling.
Zvizdic said that additional 180 police officers were sent to part of borders with the highest migration pressure, which resulted in prevention of illegal entrances.
In addition, Ministry of Interior of Republika Srpska, one of the entities, will send additional 40 police officers to BiH’s Border Police who will be deployed in the most critical parts of BiH’s eastern border.
More than 14,000 migrants were prevented from entering in BiH, and 899 migrants were sent back to other states by readmission agreements so far this year.
Most migrants came from Pakistan (6,910), Iran (3,373), Syria (2,529), Afghanistan (2,431), Iraq (1,874) and Libya (760).
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. However, migrants turned to BiH in recent months, trying to avoid more heavily-guarded routes and borders in the Balkans.
(Source: Xinhua)
