A permanent migrant camp in Lipa village near the northern town of Bihać should be completed in the next three months, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Security Minister Selmo Cikotić said on Wednesday, news agency Hina reported.

Cikotić, together with officials from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Austria’s ambassador to BiH, Urlike Hartmann, visited the makeshift tent settlement in Lipa, which is currently catering for several hundred migrants resettled there from Bihać upon demand by local authorities. 

Work on equipping the Lipa camp is progressing on schedule and the minister believes that the camp will be able to accommodate about 1,500 people by the summer. They will then be housed in containers instead of tents. 

IOM’s Eugenio Ambrosi said the organisation, which is managing migrant camps in BiH, now expects the establishment of an efficient coordination system between local authorities and international organisations.

“We will continue to be partners,” said Ambrosi, while Ambassador Hartmann announced the continuation of financial support from her country. 

According to police agencies’ estimates, there are currently between 6,000 and 7,000 migrants in BiH, 4,500 of whom are in reception centres near Sarajevo and in Una-Sana Canton. Authorities in those cantons insist that migrants should not be placed within urban zones and that they be distributed in other areas of the country too.

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