Nearly a hundred migrants in the park next to the Railway Station

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Nearly a hundred migrants are in the park next to the Railway Station in Sarajevo. Most of them plan to sleep under the open sky even though the temperature will drop to zero, while some of them want to sleep in the station hall.

Mostly they are young men, and several families with children.

A group of migrants told a Patria reporter that they are from Pakistan, and that they want to go to the European Union before the autumn rains.
In recent weeks, authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina have spoken of a reduced influx of migrants into the country. When asked how many migrants were in BiH as of the end of August, and how many migrants entered BiH in total from January 1 this year, the Ministry of Security stated:

"Since the beginning of the year until today, 15,433 migrants have been detected and registered. The number of migrants currently staying on the territory of BiH has drastically decreased recently and that number ranges between 1,500 and 2,000 people."

Director of the Border Police of BiH Zoran Galić, however, presents different data: "The arrival of migrants to the territory of BiH follows the earlier continuity and is not declining as claimed by some politicians," said Galić after a meeting with the Director of the German Federal Police Dieter Roman at the beginning of the week in Trebinje.

From the opposition as well as the civil sector, it is considered that one of the key problems of the migrant crisis in BiH is the politicization of this issue, which has affected the fact that the authorities to date do not have accurate data on how many migrants are currently staying in Bosnia and Herzegovina, nor approximate estimates of how many migrants are staying completely illegally in the country.

In BiH to date, there are several legal refugee camps, such as the one in Salakovac near Mostar, in Bihać, Cazin, Delijaši near Trnovo, and soon migrants will also be accommodated in the barracks in Hadžići. A large number of migrants who entered the country sleep in parks or in rented apartments.

One of Patria's interlocutors from the Ministry of Security, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cites the figure of about a hundred migrants who enter BiH almost every day, at the border with Serbia. The police of the BiH entity Republika Srpska lets them through that part of Bosnia and Herzegovina to reach the Federation, but does not allow them to stay in the RS area.