ZAGREB, May 13, 2018 - The director of Bosnia and Herzegovina's border police Zoran Galić said on Saturday that his police branch needed to be manned by more staff to be able to cope with a rising number of migrants passing through the country on their way to western and northern Europe.
Galić was quoted by local media outlets as saying that he had demanded that the state authorities approve the employment of 526 border police officers to fill in vacancies. He also proposed the redistribution of police officers from other law enforcement agencies in a bid to step up control of Bosnia and Herzegovina borderline with Serbia and Montenegro.
The local police are expected to step up surveillance over the areas bordering with Croatia where migrants go from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Since the beginning of this year, the border police have prevented 1,754 irregular migrants from entering Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to data presented by Galić. He said that a particular attention should be paid to the fact that there were many women and children among those migrants who needed additional assistance.
The state authorities have convened a meeting for Monday to discuss the urgent issue.
