SARAJEVO/BIHAC: Bosnia is struggling to cope with the arrival of thousands of migrants and refugees, many of whom are sleeping in parks in the capital and other towns as they seek passage into western Europe.
The country’s asylum center has 200 beds and 80 to 150 people have arrived each day this month, Security Minister Dragan Mektic said on Monday.
About 4,000 people from Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Algeria and Afghanistan have entered Bosnia this year compared with 755 in 2017 and up to 1,500 are stuck there. Many have faced perilous journeys.
“I was sent back from Croatia six times,” said Omar from Iraq, who arrived in Bosnia with his younger brother after spending two years in Greece. Omar declined to give his last name.
“I must get to Germany because all my family is there,” said the 19-year-old, echoing many others who spoke in the empty old building in Bihac near the Croatian border where he stayed.
More than a million migrants came to Europe in 2015. The so-called Balkan route into western Europe via Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia was shut in 2016 when Turkey agreed to stop the flow in return for EU aid and a promise of visa-free travel for its own citizens.
But since autumn, following stricter border controls between Serbia, Hungary and Croatia, smugglers have created a new route from Greece via Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia to Croatia and western Europe.
Migrants stranded in Serbia since 2016 are also increasingly crossing to Bosnia and many Iranians are also taking advantage of a visa-free regime introduced last year between Serbia and Iran.
While the International Organization for Migration (IOM) expects arrivals to continue on average of 350-400 a week, Adnan Tatarevic from Pomozi.ba, a Sarajevo-based NGO that has helped migrants since January, says the numbers are higher.
“We expect about 50,000 arrivals by the end of the year,” Tatarevic told Reuters. International groups helping migrants have urged the government to accommodate people sleeping rough.
“The longer we wait to put accommodation and everything with it in place, the risk is we are creating ... a mini-humanitarian crisis,” said Peter Van Der Auweraert, IOM’s western Balkans coordinator. “It has to be done not in two months time but ... next week.”
Authorities in Sarajevo and the northwestern town of Bihac asked central government for help, saying they worried about health risks given the warmer weather and deteriorating public hygiene. The two cities are also tourism destinations.
Non-governmental organizations and residents, some of whom became refugees themselves during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, have helped migrants for months but now say they struggle to cope.
Government ministers on Monday pledged to move the migrants to alternative accommodation but warned Bosnia could be forced to close borders unless the migrants can continue their journeys to other EU countries.
![]()
Bosnia struggles to cope with arrival of thousands of migrants
Bosnia struggles to cope with arrival of thousands of migrants
- The country’s asylum center has 200 beds and 80 to 150 people have arrived each day this month, Security Minister Dragan Mektic said on Monday
Britain’s PM Starmer faces MPs as pressure grows over Mandelson scandal
- Keir Starmer set to be grilled in parliament about his judgment in appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador
- New allegations former envoy passed confidential information to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced growing pressure Wednesday over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, after fresh revelations about the disgraced politician’s close ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer was set to be grilled in parliament about his judgment in appointing Mandelson, following new allegations that the ex-envoy had passed confidential information to the late US sex offender Epstein nearly two decades ago.
UK police have announced they are now probing the claims, which emerged from email exchanges between the pair that revealed the extent of their warm relations, financial dealings as well as private photos.
Around that time, Epstein was serving an 18-month jail term for soliciting a minor in Florida while Mandelson was a UK government minister.
For decades a pivotal and often divisive figure in British politics, Mandelson has had a chequered career having twice been forced to resign from public office for alleged misconduct.
Starmer sacked him as UK ambassador to the US last September after an earlier Epstein files release showed their ties had lasted longer than previously revealed. He had only been in the post for seven months.
On Tuesday, Mandelson resigned from the upper house of parliament — the unelected House of Lords — after the latest release of Epstein files sparked a renewed furor.
Opposition pressure
The main Conservative opposition will use its parliamentary time Wednesday to try to force the release of papers on his appointment in Washington.
They want MPs to order the publication of all documents related to Mandelson getting the job in February last year.
They want to see details of the vetting procedure — including messages exchanged with senior ministers and key figures in Starmer’s inner circle — amid growing questions about Starmer’s lack of judgment on the issue.
Starmer’s center-left government appeared willing to comply on Wednesday, at least in part. It proposed releasing the documents apart from those “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations.”
London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed on Tuesday it had launched an investigation into 72-year-old Mandelson for misconduct in public office offenses following the latest revelations.
If any charges were brought and he was convicted, he could potentially face imprisonment.
Starmer sacked the former minister and ex-EU trade commissioner as Britain’s top diplomat in the US after an earlier release from the Epstein files detailed his cozy ties with the disgraced American.
‘Let his country down’
The scandal resurfaced after the release by the US Justice Department of the latest batch of documents. They showed Mandelson had forwarded in 2009 an economic briefing to Epstein intended for then-prime minister Gordon Brown.
In another 2010 email the US financier, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, asked Mandelson about the European Union’s bailout of Greece.
The latest release also showed Epstein appeared to have transferred a total of $75,000 in three payments to accounts linked to the British politician between 2003 and 2004.
Mandelson has told the BBC he had no memory of the money transfers and did not know whether the documents were authentic.
He quit his House of Lords position on Tuesday shortly after Starmer said he had “let his country down.”
The UK leader said Tuesday he feared more revelations could come, and has pledged his government would cooperate with any police inquiries into the matter.
The Met police confirmed they had received a referral on the matter from the UK government.
The EU is also investigating whether Mandelson breached any of their rules during his time from 2004-2008 as EU trade commissioner.
Starmer was set to be grilled in parliament about his judgment in appointing Mandelson, following new allegations that the ex-envoy had passed confidential information to the late US sex offender Epstein nearly two decades ago.
UK police have announced they are now probing the claims, which emerged from email exchanges between the pair that revealed the extent of their warm relations, financial dealings as well as private photos.
Around that time, Epstein was serving an 18-month jail term for soliciting a minor in Florida while Mandelson was a UK government minister.
For decades a pivotal and often divisive figure in British politics, Mandelson has had a chequered career having twice been forced to resign from public office for alleged misconduct.
Starmer sacked him as UK ambassador to the US last September after an earlier Epstein files release showed their ties had lasted longer than previously revealed. He had only been in the post for seven months.
On Tuesday, Mandelson resigned from the upper house of parliament — the unelected House of Lords — after the latest release of Epstein files sparked a renewed furor.
Opposition pressure
The main Conservative opposition will use its parliamentary time Wednesday to try to force the release of papers on his appointment in Washington.
They want MPs to order the publication of all documents related to Mandelson getting the job in February last year.
They want to see details of the vetting procedure — including messages exchanged with senior ministers and key figures in Starmer’s inner circle — amid growing questions about Starmer’s lack of judgment on the issue.
Starmer’s center-left government appeared willing to comply on Wednesday, at least in part. It proposed releasing the documents apart from those “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations.”
London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed on Tuesday it had launched an investigation into 72-year-old Mandelson for misconduct in public office offenses following the latest revelations.
If any charges were brought and he was convicted, he could potentially face imprisonment.
Starmer sacked the former minister and ex-EU trade commissioner as Britain’s top diplomat in the US after an earlier release from the Epstein files detailed his cozy ties with the disgraced American.
‘Let his country down’
The scandal resurfaced after the release by the US Justice Department of the latest batch of documents. They showed Mandelson had forwarded in 2009 an economic briefing to Epstein intended for then-prime minister Gordon Brown.
In another 2010 email the US financier, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, asked Mandelson about the European Union’s bailout of Greece.
The latest release also showed Epstein appeared to have transferred a total of $75,000 in three payments to accounts linked to the British politician between 2003 and 2004.
Mandelson has told the BBC he had no memory of the money transfers and did not know whether the documents were authentic.
He quit his House of Lords position on Tuesday shortly after Starmer said he had “let his country down.”
The UK leader said Tuesday he feared more revelations could come, and has pledged his government would cooperate with any police inquiries into the matter.
The Met police confirmed they had received a referral on the matter from the UK government.
The EU is also investigating whether Mandelson breached any of their rules during his time from 2004-2008 as EU trade commissioner.
Latest updates
Recommended
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.