Peter Van Der Auweraert

The troubled Lipa migrant and refugee camp near Bihac in northwest Bosnia was set on fire on Wednesday as it was due to close.

The camp has been at the centre of a battle between the local authorities and the International Organization for Migration, IOM, which has long threatened to close the camp if the authorities do not improve winter conditions.

Amid an ongoing dispute over a Constitutional Court ruling that has angered Bosnian Serb politicians, Milorad Dodik, the Serbian member of the state presidency, has stopped Bosnia from signing up to a status agreement with the European Union border agency, Frontex.

Undeterred by the freezing weather, migrants and refugees are still attempting to cross over from Bosnia and Herzegovina to EU-member Croatia.

The accommodation of about 300 migrants camping in a tent settlement in Velika Kladusa in north-west Bosnia should be resolved as a priority matter, a meeting of state representatives and the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, agreed on Wednesday.

A boat carrying ten illegal migrants turned over in the river on the border between Serbia and Bosnia near the village of Tabanci, near the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik.

Police in Bosnia's mainly Serbian entity, Republika Srpska, RS, said no one was injured.

Denis Zvizdic, the chair of Bosnia's Council of Ministers, on Thursday said police will be reassigned to help the border police service secure Bosnia's borders and stop illegal crossings.

This is one of the measures of the draft of the emergency plan that the Council of Ministers adopted earlier this week, which is expected to be confirmed soon.

Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs Minister Zoran Djordjevic met Tuesday with representatives of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Djordjevic spoke with Regional Coordinator Peter Van Der Auweraert and Head of IOM's Office in Serbia Lidija Markovic, the Serbian government announced on its website.