”Illegal migration in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been brought under full control, and there are no more than 2.000 people in temporary reception centers, ” said yesterday the director of the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs of BiH, Slobodan Ujić.
Ujic told that there are always 200 to 250 people on the move who are moving towards the border and the European Union (EU), but he pointed out that excellent work has been done in the last year and a half.
When it comes to refugees from Ukraine, Ujic reiterated that no one will be expelled from BiH, but that the Service for Foreigners‘ Affairs will be their service even when their 30-day stay expires, and a solution will be found if they want to stay.
“The Ministry of Security will propose that they be allowed a humanitarian stay that will last six months,” Ujic told reporters in Banja Luka, where the results and plan for the next steps within the project “Improving Assistance to Migrants and Supporting Local Communities in Republika Srpska (RS)” were presented.
Also, he added that refugees from Ukraine were deployed throughout BiH and that many expressed a desire to continue their journey to one of the EU countries.
Ujic noted that mobile teams at the border and in Bijeljina are important because it will be easier to reach illegal migrants and the fact from where they entered BiH, and thus it will be possible for them to be returned by readmission to the countries they came from.
“When it comes to mobile teams, in which people from local communities work, we will see fewer illegal migrants on the streets, we will get their biometric data faster, that is, we will register them faster and transport them to temporary reception centers,” Ujic explained.
Norwegian Ambassador to BiH Olav Reinertsen said that the project started four months ago and that extraordinary results have been achieved.
“Four mobile centers have been established, three of which are in RS – Banja Luka, Bijeljina, and Visegrad. As RS Interior Minister Dragan Lukac said, it remains to be seen whether there is a need to open more such centers,” Reinertsen said.
The head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)mission in BiH and the regional coordinator for the Western Balkans, Laura Lungaroti, said that in the five months since the mobile teams were established, they had identified and helped 341 migrants in RS in a very short time.
She thanked the Ministry of Security of BiH, the Service for Foreigners‘ Affairs, the RS Ministry of the Interior, and other police ministries in BiH for their cooperation.
The presentation was organized by the IOM in coordination with the BiH Ministry of Security and the Service for Foreigners‘ Affairs. The project was supported by the Norwegian Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs.
E.Dz.
Source: BHRT
