STRICT CONTROL REDUCED NUMBER OF ISTANBUL-SARAJEVO PASSENGERS

SARAJEVO, Sept 4 (Hina) - The strict control Bosnia's State Border Service (DGS) has introduced at the Sarajevo airport has given the first results in reducing the number of potential illegal immigrants, the spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Bosnia, Stefo Lehmann, said in Sarajevo on Tuesday. Up until recently, illegal immigrants reached Bosnia on Istanbul- Sarajevo flights. In this year's first six months, more than 1,500 passengers would arrive in the Bosnian capital from Turkey each month. Starting in early July, the DGS introduced a strict inspection of suspicious passengers with Turkish passports. Such measures have immediately reduced the number of passengers arriving in Sarajevo. In July, 646 Turks arrived in the capital from Istanbul, but only 398 arrived in August. It is particularly significant that 328 of those 398 returned to Istanbul on the same flight, said Lehmann. In the past, the UN Mission and the DGS warned that the majority of passengers from Istanbul simply vanished as their departure from Bosnia was never recorded. It was assumed they illegally crossed Croatia and Slovenia to reach Western Europe. (hina) ha