Migrants’ Freedom of Movement Restricted in Western Bosnia

The Una-Sana Canton Interior Ministry spokesman Ale Siljdedic told Bosnian media on Tuesday that migrants living rough in public areas and abandoned facilities will be relocated by local police to the Vucjak temporary migrant centre in the area.

"The goal of this measure is to regulate, as much as possible, the normal life of citizens and prevent any negative activities we have had from begging, vagrancy, criminal offences and burglaries of private buildings," Siljdedic told Bosnian media.

Suhret Fazlic, the mayor of Bihac, the largest city in the Una-Sana Canton, which has seen an influx of migrants over the past two years, announced meanwhile that as of Monday, the city will cease funding for the Vucjak Migration Centre.

Fazlic accused Bosnian Security Minister Dragan Mektic of playing down the seriousness of the migrant situation.

"[Mektic] says that there are 4,000 migrants in Bosnia and I claim that there are more than 6,000 in Bihac alone. The city of Bihac has spent more than 100,000 marks [around 50,000 euros] on the Vucjak camp. Nobody gave us anything," Fazlic told a press conference in Sarajevo on Tuesday.

He added that, on average, about 150 migrants arrive in Bihac every night.

Fazlic also warned that with the advent of winter, the humanitarian and security situation in Bihac is starting to become alarming.

The Vucjak centre opened in June in despite protests from the United Nations and the International Office of Migration over the conditions there.

The improvised tent camp in a Bosnian forest has no toilet, no running water and no electricity, and is eight kilometres from the nearest town.

On the other side of the country, in the south-eastern Bosnian town of Bileca, not far from the border with...