ZAGREB, May 30, 2018 – Since the beginning of 2018, slightly fewer than 5,000 illegal migrants have arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina and most of them have told police that they plan to apply for asylum, however, only about 10% have submitted applications, which shows that their real intention is to continue their journey to EU countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina Security Minister Dragan Mektić said while presenting police data to the government on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters after the government session, Mektić said that by May 25 the police had registered 4,870 nationals from countries with high migration risk. Of that number, 4,215 have said that they plan to seek asylum in Bosnia and Herzegovina but only 423 have actually applied, said Mektić.
He resolutely dismissed speculation that dozens of thousands of migrants have actually entered the country and that its authorities are trying to cover up the real dimensions of the problem.
Mektić said that a military barracks in the Sarajevo area that was not being used would be converted to provide accommodation for migrants, stressing that measures that had been taken to improve border control were yielding results and that the number of illegal entries had been significantly reduced.
