Deportations of Migrants From Croatia Alarm Bosnian Cantonal PM

The Prime Minister of Una Sana Canton, one of ten cantons in Bosnia's Federation entity, Mustafa Ruznic, has sent an open letter to Bosnia's state security and foreign ministers, as well as to the head of the Foreigners Affairs Service, SPS, demanding an explanation for the increased number of migrants and refugees reportedly returned from Croatia to Bosnia based on a bilateral readmission agreement.

Ruznic said a significant number of them are unknown to the authorities and might present a security risks and complained of not being informed about a detention centre. 

"There are indications that a detention centre has been opened in the Temporary Reception Centre,TRC, in Lipa, with your apparent approval, without informing us," Ruznic wrote in the letter on Thursday. "According to our information, which you have kept silent about, migrants who are prohibited from moving are being accommodated and monitored in this centre," he added.

He sought an explanation from the SPS, which is in charge of TRC Lipa, in the northwest Krajina region, one of the areas most affected by the refugee crisis. 

The new mass deportation that has reportedly been going on for weeks caught public attention in Bosnia last week when 80 migrants and refugees were deported from Croatia to Bosnia and sent to the Lipa Temporary Reception Center in Bihac.

Una-Sana Canton police spokesperson Bahrudin Dzelalagic said the police were not informed about the detention centre, or the number of readmissions. 

"Only yesterday, 37 migrants were deported back to Bosnia and Herzegovina and we have noticed an increased presence in the city," Dzelalagic told BIRN on Thursday. "We do not have information on how many of them are in the detention centre," he added. 

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