Major General Trischak spent Wednesday 10 July visiting the migrant camps at Bihac and Vucjak and speaking to key officials from the region as well as representatives of International Organisations who are providing support to the migrants.
Major General Trischak said, “The purpose of my visit is to witness first-hand the migrant situation in Una Sana Canton as it currently prevails and seek a greater understanding of the support that migrants are receiving along with understanding the difficulties that USC faces in dealing with very large numbers of migrants currently in USC.
The Mayor of Bihac, Mr Suhret Fazlic, The Deputy Prime Minister, Adnan Alagić and the Minister of the Interior of Una Sana Canton, Nermin Kljajić, briefed Major General Trischak on their concerns namely: increasing security challenges, in particular within USC where public frustration is high, lack of support from state level institutions and the potential negative economic effect on the Canton. Major General Trischak stated, “State level support to the migrant situation is critical in order to provide adequate support and mitigate against a potential crisis.”
Meeting with representatives from a variety of organisations such as IOM, UNHCR, UNICEF, DRC, UNFPA the Red Cross and Red Cresent, Major General Trischak gained a good overview of the actual situation and will be informing key players accordingly in order to ensure that the migrant situation remains high on their respective agendas.
It was notable that all the officials and organisations COM EUFOR visited had good productive relationships with one another and were able to cooperate effectively using the limited resources they had available.