Bosnia Readies for Potential Refugee Influx

Bosnia's Defence Ministry is ready to make available five military facilities to accommodate refugees from the Middle East if their nomal route through the region changes to include Bosnia, the ministry told BIRN on Tuesday.

"They are all 'non-perspective' military facilities where there are no units, weapons, military equipment, ammunitions or explosives," the ministry said, adding that the locations are in Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Bugojno, Semizovac and Kalinovik.

"These structures have a total capacity for around 1,300 persons but we are also offering the possibility of setting up one or two camps for another 500 to 700 persons," the ministry added, setting the total number of refugees that could be hosted in Bosnia at 2,000.

According to the Ministry of Security, these preparations are just part of a preliminary plan as there is no evidence that the refugee route is about to change and include Bosnia.

Most migrants currently cross Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia on their way to the West, missing out Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia and Albania.

"We don't have any evidence that refugees coming from the Middle East will cross our territory," Admir Malagic, spokesperson of the Ministry of Security, told BIRN on Tuesday.

"These assessments are part of a plan approved by the Council of Ministers and are conducted in case there is any possible change to the current route," Malagic told BIRN.

New, tougher border policies introduced this week as part of a regional agreement by Balkan interior ministers have already resulted in a drop in the number of the migrants using the Balkan route.

In the past few months, however, hundreds of thousands of people have used it to reach Austria, Germany and other countries.

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