Una Sana Canton

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 agre

The Bihac City Administration has informed local utility companies that it will no longer pay for services such as water delivery and garbage collection from the troubled "Vucjak" migrant camp, whose closure has been demanded by the UN among others.

Police in northwest Bosnia on Monday conducted house-to-house searches for migrants and refugees after a controversial decision was made to relocate all migrants and refugees from private homes in the Bihac area to a new temporary tent centre at Vucjak, near the border with Croatia.

Una National Park, the stunning Una and Sana rivers and rafting are the top three tourist attractions that Bosnia and Herzegovina has to offer but officials have raised fears that this year's tourist season might be compromised by the migrants and refugees who have arrived in the country's picturesque north-west.

The increasing number of migrants and refugees entering Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018 has raised concerns about security, especially in towns near the border with EU member state Croatia, but official data shows that they have not committed large numbers of criminal offences.

Several migrants and refugees were injured when they tried to break through a police cordon on Wednesday that has been preventing them from entering EU member Croatia at the Maljevac border checkpoint in northern Bosnia, local media reported.

Both the UN and a growing population of migrants and refugees in Bosnia are waiting for officials to agree on the location of a new migrants camp, since many of them are now living in improvised shelters, tents and old abandoned buildings, especially in the north of the country near the border with Croatia and the EU.

Jamila Milovic Halilovic, spokesperson of the EU Delegation in Bosnia, told BIRN that the EU had responded already to Bosnia's request for more help in accommodating growing numbers of migrants and refugees - and would help more once Bosnia's authorities had agreed on sites to locate them.

Denis Zvizdic, the chair of Bosnia's Council of Ministers, on Thursday said police will be reassigned to help the border police service secure Bosnia's borders and stop illegal crossings.

This is one of the measures of the draft of the emergency plan that the Council of Ministers adopted earlier this week, which is expected to be confirmed soon.