ZAGREB, April 5, 2019 – Una-Sana Canton police in Bosnia and Herzegovina are stepping up measures aimed at preventing the arrival of new illegal migrants to that part of the country, thus preventing them from crossing the border into Croatia and continuing their journey to other EU countries, a police source in Bihać confirmed on Friday.
Police spokesman Ale Siljdedić said that in the early hours of Friday, the police stopped a train at the entity border that was travelling from Sarajevo and found about one hundred migrants on board and prevented them from continuing their journey toward Bihać.
“We are following instructions from the cantonal task force responsible for controlling and managing the migrant crisis because reception centres in Bihać, Cazin and Velika Kladuša can no longer take in any more migrants so we are preventing migrants and refugees from entering the canton,” Siljdedić was cited as saying by the Fena news agency.
According to Siljdedić, this has been going on a daily basis because for weeks at least 50 to 100 migrants a day who enter Bosnia and Herzegovina from Serbia and Montenegro, attempt to get to Una-Sana canton.
Migrants found by the police are returned to those places from where they headed out toward Bihać.
The police in the Republika Srpska entity are implementing similar measures. They are regularly inspecting trains coming from Sarajevo and travelling to Bihać and are preventing passengers who are identified as illegal migrants from disembarking in Banja Luka.
According to the latest information submitted by police agencies to the country’s government, slightly more than 3,800 migrants have illegally entered Bosnia and Herzegovina since the beginning of the year.
More news about migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.
