ZAGREB, June 27, 2018 - The European Commission has rejected to finance setting up an accommodation centre for illegal migrants near Velika Kladuša in northwest Bosnia and Herzegovina because it considers that it is too close to the Croatian border which is at the same time the EU border and fears that this could be an incentive for migrants to continue on toward Western EU member states, Bosnia Security Minister Dragan Mektić said on Wednesday.
After a regular weekly meeting regarding the problem of illegal migrants, Mektić told reporters in Sarajevo that he had received that information during the day from the EU delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina and at the same time assessed that the reason behind such a decision could be that the intention is to place migrants deeper into Bosnian territory and to keep them there permanently in an effort to stop them from travelling on to other EU member states.
"Refugee camps won't be built in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are a victim of the migrant crisis and are suffering its consequences," Mektić said, adding that the situation should not be allowed where refugee camps are built in which migrants could remain "trapped" in Bosnia and Herzegovina. "That would be disastrous for Bosnia and Herzegovina," Mektić warned.
He added that he didn't see the reasoning behind the claim that it would be a problem if the refugee camp would be close to the Croatian border and recalled that there is a refugee camp in Šid, Serbia which housed thousands of migrants and was located only a few hundred metres from the border with Croatia.
He explained that the government had adopted a clear decision that refugee centres in the country would be located only in the army barracks in Sarajevo and in one of the abandoned warehouses in the former Agrokomerc plant near Velika Kladuša.
Despite not receiving EU funds to set up the refugee centre, Mektić announced that Bosnia would itself cover the costs of equipping the camps. "We will feed migrants as much as we can," Mektić said and added that currently there were about 3,000 migrants in Bosnia.
Current police data indicates that, since the start of the year, 7,128 migrants entered the country, 662 of whom applied for asylum. Based on readmission agreements, 318 migrants were accepted whereas 575 were handed over to other countries.
Border police in the country prevented 400 migrants from entering the country in the past week and Mektić claimed that deploying additional forces to the border has brought results.
