The Balkans as a warehouse for migrants?

It has been seven years since the first wave of migrants entered Bosnia and Herzegovina in large numbers, after Hungary and Croatia closed their borders in 2015. Since then, thousands of migrants have stayed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, some of whom have remained in the country, while others have found refuge in EU countries and the United Kingdom.

The latter could suffer the same fate if the British government’s plan to reach an agreement with Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Albania, which Prime Minister Edi Rama has rejected, turns out to be correct. However, the United States has reached an agreement with Kosovo to house around 50 migrants who will be deported from the US, which could confirm previous reports that the Trump administration will use the Western Balkans as a deportation hub.

Migrant trafficking

As for BiH, this issue has resurfaced after the waves of migrants in recent years, in which dozens of them have lost their lives crossing the borders illegally. Everything has also taken on a political dimension, as the UK's announcement of deportations to BiH cannot be implemented until a readmission agreement is signed, which requires the consent of all three ethnic groups in BiH, which will be difficult to happen unless there is some hidden interest or "debt settlement".

Republika Srpska was the first to oppose such a plan, so a session of the RS National Assembly is scheduled to take a position on the issue of migrants on the territory of this entity. Although there is no official confirmation, there is no possibility of deportation, because there is no agreement on this.

"We will not be a parking lot for this while I lead Republika Srpska. BiH will not sign an agreement with any European country to accept migrants who have invited them to come to them. We have not invited them and we do not want to clean up the mess they have left in this regard," said RS President Milorad Dodik.

He sent an initiative to parliament to review information about migrants in order to "adopt measures in relation to notifications from the governments of Great Britain and other countries in due time".

Dodik criticized the RS opposition, which has been trying to remove the SNSD from power in recent months, for being ready to do anything for certain positions in Sarajevo, including importing migrants.

SDS Main Board member Marinko Bozovic responded immediately.

"If they offered you the lifting of sanctions, you wouldn't think twice," he wrote on Facebook, responding to Dodik.

Arrival of migrants in closed camps?

There are currently four migrant camps in BiH - Lipa and Boriqi as well as Blazhuj and Ushivak. Due to the high security risk, an initiative has been created to urgently close the Blazhuj camp.

"The migrant camp and all the crimes we are seeing, including murders, are creating a huge problem for the local population and the development of the Ilidža municipality," said SDP representative in parliament Sasha Maganović, who is the initiator of the camp's closure. 

However, to close a camp, it is necessary to open a new one that would meet all the needs for the temporary reception of migrants, according to the Foreigners' Affairs Service.

"No matter what kind of migrants they are, we accepted them, while they do everything. I would kick them all out of here. Let them go back to their countries or go to Europe. They opened the borders for them," say some Sarajevo citizens.

"British friends"

Not long after the biggest migrant crisis in BiH when several centers were burned down and others were closed, hundreds of migrants waited for days for a decision from the authorities about their fate.

Four camps were subsequently established, but the security situation there is extremely unfavorable. The population and some politicians are calling for the closure of some of them. Especially after reports that the number of migrants could increase if reports of their deportation to the Western Balkan countries prove to be true.

On the other hand, BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konakovic says he has no information about the possible deportation of migrants, but he is ready to talk.

"We will never be part of solving someone else's problem. If this is the initiative of our friends from Great Britain, we will say seriously and with arguments what BiH can and cannot do," says Konakovic.

Warehouse for migrants

The Service for Foreigners' Affairs in BiH says that under these conditions, accepting migrants from Great Britain is impossible.

"I don't understand how they intend to do this. BiH has not signed any agreement with Great Britain," said the director of the Service for Foreign Affairs, Zharko Laketa.

Regarding the initiative to create so-called Return Centers in third countries for asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch announced that the European Union and the United Kingdom should stop using the Balkans as a "warehouse for migrants."

"Rather than treating the Balkans as a dumping ground for migrants, the EU and the UK can play an important role in supporting the development of functioning asylum systems and better frameworks for protecting migrants' rights," the human rights organization said. It cited the example of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a country that is already being used "as a collection point for people who accidentally find themselves in transit to the EU."/ DW