The planned breakthrough will reportedly take place ahead of signing a proposed UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration pact. Several countries such as the US and Austria have already backed out of the treaty.
Some 20,000 migrants are currently preparing to break through the Bosnian-Croatian border near Velika-Kladusa, Kronen Zeitung reported, citing an anonymous department head from the Austrian Interior Ministry. The migrant crowd is purportedly made up of young men of Pakistani, Iranian, Algerian and Moroccan descent as opposed to earlier migrant “waves” from Syria. And there are almost no women in this group.
But what troubles the Interior Ministry most are the reports that many of these men are armed with knives. Media outlets have already reported one incident, involving a border officer who was attacked by a knife-wielding migrant.
The Interior Ministry is not worried about the massive migrant group coming to Austria because most of them want to reach the northern part of the EU, where states provide better conditions for refugees.
“Migrants want to [go to] Germany, to Scandinavian countries. Austria is not the best option for them right now,” the source in the ministry said.
The growing crisis at the Bosnian-Croatian border comes a month ahead of a UN conference in Morocco, where The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration will be adopted. The pact is described as a framework to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of migration. Despite the agreement’s stated goal, a number of states, namely the US, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, have backed out of the pact, while several others are weighing this option.
In October, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz criticized some of the clauses of the proposed agreement due to substantive concerns over threats to the country’s sovereignty. Kurz is known for his hardline stance on illegal migration. In one of his most recent proposals, the chancellor suggested that the EU should send migrants rescued at sea to countries outside the bloc’s borders. – www.lewrockwell.com
Bosnian police put on alert as migrants reach Croatia border
published – 22.10.2018
A group of some 200 migrants has arrived at the Bosnia-Croatia border crossing in Maljevac on Monday morning where they blocked a road lane, police confirmed to N1 television.
“Some 200 migrants are already there at the Maljevac border crossing. The border hasn’t been blocked yet and the transport of goods and people is still ongoing. (…) Our border police, as well as the border police of Croatia, were informed about this. Our police officers are on the spot,” said police spokeswoman Snezana Galic.
The border crossing is located near the northwestern Bosnian town of Velika Kladusa, where hundreds of migrants gathered over the past months in an attempt to get as close to the border with the European Union as possible and to eventually cross it. Their final destinations, they say, are western European countries.
The situation is similar in Bihac, another town of this region bordering Croatia. Hundreds of residents there took to the streets over the past weekend, protesting against the increasing influx of migrants in that area, and calling on state authorities to tackle the issue. The protesters said they felt the influx of people jeopardised public safety, and raised doubts about the true origin and history of some of the migrants who arrived to their city.
There is no refugee or migrant centre in neither of the two towns, capable of temporarily hosting migrants in Bosnia. This led to migrants forming tent camps in parks and other public areas, or even occupying abandoned buildings. (FULL STORY HERE)
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