SARAJEVO, Jan 16 (Hina) - The introduction of a visa regime has substantially lessened the inflow of illegal immigrants from Iran to Bosnia-Herzegovina, but now they are replaced by citizens of Tunisia, who are trying to reach western
Europe without valid papers. A spokesman for the United Nations' mission in Bosnia, on Tuesday said that the visa regime, which took effect in December 2000 for nationals of Iran, drastically cut the number of passengers from that Asian country to Bosnia. According to figures available to the UN mission, last year, 14,315 Iranians arrived in Sarajevo by air and only 1,226 of them left the county using the air transport. Nothing exactly is known what happened with over 13,000 Iranians, but they are believed to have moved via Croatia and Slovenia into western European countries. The same case is with Turks. In 2000, over 14,000 Turks entered Bosnia legally
SARAJEVO, Jan 16 (Hina) - The introduction of a visa regime has
substantially lessened the inflow of illegal immigrants from Iran
to Bosnia-Herzegovina, but now they are replaced by citizens of
Tunisia, who are trying to reach western Europe without valid
papers.
A spokesman for the United Nations' mission in Bosnia, on Tuesday
said that the visa regime, which took effect in December 2000 for
nationals of Iran, drastically cut the number of passengers from
that Asian country to Bosnia.
According to figures available to the UN mission, last year, 14,315
Iranians arrived in Sarajevo by air and only 1,226 of them left the
county using the air transport.
Nothing exactly is known what happened with over 13,000 Iranians,
but they are believed to have moved via Croatia and Slovenia into
western European countries.
The same case is with Turks.
In 2000, over 14,000 Turks entered Bosnia legally abroad planes
flying regularly from Istanbul to the Bosnian capital. Four
thousand of them returned to Turkey by air, while the rest is
believed to have immigrated in West Europe.
From June to December 2000, Croatian police caught 5,361 illegal
immigrants trying to cross the border without valid papers. The
police transferred them back to Bosnia.
According to the UN mission's estimates, between 40 and 50 thousand
immigrants illegally moved into West Europe via Bosnia last year.
Tunis is one of the few countries not to have a visa regime with
Bosnia.
UN spokesman Douglas Coffman warned that the latest figures showed
the abrupt increase of passengers travelling to Bosnia with
Tunisian passports.
Organisers of their journey still use the old route - regular
flights between Istanbul and Sarajevo.
In the past the number of Tunisians arriving in Bosnia was symbolic,
but now hundreds of them flood the Sarajevo airport monthly,
Coffman added.
(hina) ms