Bosnian Authorities Resettle Large Migrant Camp On EU Border - Interior Minister

BELGRADE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2019) Bosnian authorities resettled migrants from the most problematic camp on the border with Croatia without incidents, Interior Minister Dragan Mektic said on Wednesday.

Last week, Nermina Cemalovic, the health minister of the Una-Sana region, told Sputnik that the area near EU border was on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe due to the influx of migrants, including those carrying dangerous contagious diseases. After the collapse of tents due to heavy snow, people in the camp began a hunger strike, and EU officials demanded that the migrants be resettled due to inhumane conditions. In the early hours of Wednesday, under tight police control, migrants were taken by several buses from the camp to the Usivac reception center and the former Blazuj military barracks near Sarajevo, which have yet to be adapted to accommodate a large number of people.

"Before the evacuation from Vucjak, hundreds of migrants appeared there who had never been there before, there were 750 of them, so there was no space in Usivac, and Blazuj was the only solution," the minister said at a press conference on Wednesday and noted that the action was held without incidents.

He assured that all those transported to the former barracks received bunks, sleeping bags, blankets, and the issues with bathrooms and heating would be resolved in the near future.

"Migrants are there in a safe and secure space," Mektic said.

Since 2015, Europe has been experiencing its worst migration crisis in recent history, and is struggling to accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants fleeing hostilities in the middle East and North Africa.

Though the Western Balkan migrant route leading from Greece through Macedonia and Serbia to Croatia was closed in 2016, migrants continue to cross into the continent through a new Balkan route, increasing pressure on the reception capacities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, and Montenegro.