USA to deport 181 illegals to Bosnia and Herzegovina

A group of 181 citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) will be expelled from the USA to their home country as part of the border security and immigration policy measures being implemented by the new administration in the White House.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ambassador in Washington, Sven Alkalaj, has confirmed that the new direction being taken by American President Donald Trump, adding that the deportation of the first six of the 181 illegal immigrants has already been agreed to between Washington and Sarajevo and that their deportation will happen in the coming days.

"After the deportation of the first six, which is expected shortly, there are still another 175 left. We are waiting for the US lists to see how quickly they will be deported. Those who are legally staying in the US have no reason to worry," said Alkalaj.

He explained that deportation mainly refers to people who have committed various criminal acts, and he asserted that they themselves decided to return to Bosnia and Herzegovina, because otherwise they could end up in Guantanamo Bay or El Salvador, where the Trump administration wants to send the largest number of people that it intends to deport.

"It is better that they return to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where it will be decided whether those who have been convicted will continue to serve their sentences. These are people who have committed minor or serious crimes, and while that’s not the focus of discussion, it does disqualify them from staying in the USA," said the Bosnian ambassador.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elmedin Konaković, confirmed that measures are being rapidly implemented with the aim of receiving the people deported from the USA. Last week he informed the media that he had received a "very strong call" from the US embassy in Sarajevo in the form of a warning that there was a decision by the Trump administration that requires all home countries to cooperate in deporting their citizens who are illegally residing in the US.

"We had a situation with six people who needed to be urgently deported from America back to BiH and I can say that in a short period of time, just two days, we managed to complete all the necessary procedures. Today we issued travel documents and we expect these six people to be deported to BiH. We did all this in synchronization with the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers Borjana Krišto and the embassy in Washington," Konaković said.

The authorities in BiH still have the problem of how to regulate the status of their citizens who are being deported by the US, and who committed some criminal offenses there. BiH and the US do not have an extradition treaty, so it is unclear whether and under what conditions those who were convicted in the US will continue serving their sentences when they arrive in BiH.

Source: HRT