Professor Jasmin Ahić: From a transit country for migrants we are becoming a migrant country

Interviewed by Armin Aljović

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The situation is increasingly alarming, especially in USK, and we are behaving like frogs in a pot while they slowly boil.

Jasmin Ahić, a professor at the Faculty of Criminalistics, Criminology and Security Studies in Sarajevo, assessed this in an interview for the Patria News Agency, commenting on the migrant crisis that has been affecting Bosnia and Herzegovina for two years.

In the interview, Professor Ahić speaks about Brussels' frivolous attitude towards the migrant crisis in BiH, warns of failures by domestic institutions in the country, and points to some steps that local authorities should take to at least mitigate the consequences of the migrant wave in the country.

There are announcements that Brussels will allocate financial resources for BiH as aid in combating the migrant crisis. Is the mere allocation of money by the EU sufficient to solve the problem of the migrant crisis in BiH?

-The last meeting held two days ago, attended by all actors in the attempt to manage the BiH migrant crisis (international and domestic), showed that there WILL BE NO serious response to what BiH has been living through and trying to overcome with dignity and humanity together with migrants for two full years. I think that after so much time, direct financial aid to our state authorities is completely belated. I imagine the situation in USK, if, for example, at least 2/3 of that aid is not immediately placed at the disposal of the local and cantonal authorities there – although in other times it would be the highest priority to help the Border Police and the Service for Foreigners' Affairs. Now it is most necessary to help USK, but also to defend the BiH border in the east towards Serbia and Montenegro.

Does Bosnia and Herzegovina even have institutions that could tackle the migrant crisis, no matter how much money the country receives? Apart from the Service for Foreigners' Affairs, no other institution deals primarily with the issue of migrants and refugees. Finally, is that service even useful in a situation where migrants and refugees did not come to BiH to seek asylum?

- Exactly so, the question arises of the functionality and efficiency of certain actors in the Operational Staff. Minister Mektić also spoke about this when he stated for your agency that the obligations and responsibilities and, ultimately, the roles of the actors in the Operational Staff must be redefined so that its establishment and function are justified but also functionally efficient.

Does the Border Police even have a record of how many migrants cross the BiH border?

- The Border Police is a separate story, with maximum engagement of the BP and relocated staff from SIPA, recently the MUP of RS (it should be noted that this is a small number of police officers, about 100, rotated in shifts), who cannot seriously respond to the daily influx of migrants, and on the other hand there is no exit because Croatia has "concreted" the border. I have a feeling that international actors have, sophisticatedly, brought us from a transit country to a host country. Our role in all this is not negligible either; if our previous humane approach to the entire situation was not appreciated, then it is time for our authorities to say that we have been deceived and to urgently change our approach as well. Because if our eastern neighbors are pushing migrants in and our western neighbors have closed the border, then we too must clearly state that our territory – and only that part of the Federation of BiH – is being attempted to be made into a reception area, which we must not allow.

The current behavior of political leaders shows that there is no institution in the country capable of making urgent and clear decisions regarding the migrant crisis, even when it comes to the simplest selection of a location for migrant camp accommodation. What is the solution for the current situation?

- The only possible thing is that this already established Operational Staff should have its competencies changed or completely strengthened as of tomorrow (regardless of possible political resistance).

Is BiH facing a serious crisis, in which both citizens and unfortunate migrants and refugees who cannot obtain guaranteed rights in BiH will be endangered? Is the European Union consciously or unconsciously pushing BiH into a new crisis?

- Unfortunately, we are facing an even more serious and multidimensional migrant crisis. Almost daily we have incidents and misdemeanors, fights and other threats and criminal acts related to migrants in USK and Sarajevo, in Bijeljina, on the movement routes... During the day, large groups of migrants are transferred from city centers to, for example, Ušivak, but by morning they are back in the city. In just one day in Sarajevo, three serious incidents occurred in and around the Railway Station and the UNSA Campus. This is becoming a regular state of affairs. The situation is increasingly alarming, especially in USK, and we are behaving like frogs in a pot while they slowly boil.