Ombudsmen and OSCE Ready to Train Police Due to Increased Migrant Pressure on BiH

SARAJevo, (Patria) - Director of the BiH Border Police Zoran Galić, Deputy Director of the BiH Border Police Fahrudin Halač, and Assistant Director for Organization and Operations Dragan Kulić discussed with the Ombudsmen for Human Rights in BiH Jasminka Džumhur, Ljubinko Mitrović, and Nives Jukić, as well as representatives of the OSCE Mission to BiH Lejla Mamut, Inela Hadžimešić, and Sanja Fitzgerald at the Main Office in Sarajevo about illegal migrations from the aspect of potential human rights violations, and specifically discussed the detention facilities within the organizational units of the BiH Border Police, and generally about the institutional capacities of the BiH Border Police.

The leadership of the BiH Border Police presented the functioning, competencies, and organization of this police agency, as well as the problems faced by police officers in their daily work, with a special emphasis on poor working conditions, infrastructure at border crossings, and an insufficient number of police officers. It was pointed out that the BiH Border Police has been informing the competent authorities in BiH about these problems promptly and permanently for the past few years. It was stated that in the first five months of 2019, there was a significant increase in the number of illegal crossings by citizens of countries with high migration risk compared to the previous year, which further complicates the situation at the border, and thus in BiH, while the BiH Border Police has almost the same capacities, the BiH Border Police announced.

In addition to the above, the discussion also covered the realization of certain employee rights. Representatives of the BiH Border Police also emphasized the security problem due to the difficult possibility of determining the identity of migrants during illegal border crossings. The meeting also addressed the application of police powers, as well as the need for different legal regulation of certain institutes with new normative solutions in the area of movement and stay of foreigners.

The Institution of the Ombudsmen for Human Rights in BiH showed understanding regarding this issue and expressed full readiness to assist in creating a clearer legislative and legal framework.

It was jointly stated that it is high time for the BiH Border Police to be more adequately equipped materially and technically and to strengthen its operational capacities by hiring a larger number of police officers in order to increase efficiency. Representatives of the Institution of the Ombudsmen for Human Rights in BiH and the OSCE Mission to BiH also expressed their readiness for additional training of police officers, offering their capacities for the realization of specialized training.

It was added that to resolve the complex situation at the BiH border, in addition to the capacities of the BiH Border Police, it is necessary to make available the capacities of all police agencies and other bodies in BiH.