Croatia on March 31 returned a second group of migrants to Bosnia-Herzegovina amid questions about where the migrants should be allowed to apply for asylum.
A group of about 93 people who were deported by Croatia are being housed in a temporary reception center near the town of Bihac in northwestern Bosnia. The first group of about 80 migrants arrived at the center from Croatia on March 30.
They were brought to the center accompanied by the Bosnian Border Police in coordination with the State Service for Foreigners' Affairs.
Mustafa Ruznic, the leader of Una-Sana Canton in northwestern Bosnia, told RFE/RL that he asked the Bosnian authorities to provide information about the origin of the migrants and the reason they were relocated from Croatia. He has not yet received an answer.
Croatian police did not respond when asked by RFE/RL to comment on the readmission of the migrants.
A spokesman for the Bosnian Security Ministry told RFE/RL that the migrants were brought to the border crossing under the readmission agreement between Bosnia and Croatia.
"This is a regular procedure, and this is what we are doing toward Serbia and toward Montenegro under agreements with these countries," Admir Malagic said.
The agreement envisages that people who enter Croatia from Bosnia will be returned to Bosnia.
The number of migrants arriving in Slovenia since Croatia entered Europe's Schengen passport-free zone on January 1 has shot up by 300 percent.
Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob in a statement on March 27 after a meeting with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic warned of increased pressure on Croatia and Slovenia as transit countries for migrants who aim to make Italy their target destination.
"We are looking for ways to control the entire corridor from the Bosnian border to the Italian border through trilateral participation in order to establish better control of irregular migration," Golob said.
Plenkovic said after the meeting that the Croatian police were guarding the border according to the law.
"We cooperate with the authorities and police of other countries and prevent irregular migration, and the 6,500 Croatian police officers guarding the border behave in accordance with Croatian laws and European and international norms and standards," Plenkovic said.
He once again stressed that Croatia will not install fences or barbed wire on the border with its neighbors in Southeastern Europe.
According to Slovenian police, in the first two months of 2023 Slovenia recorded 5,162 attempts to enter the country illegally, while in the same period last year there were only 1,295 attempts.
The migrants are mostly from Afghanistan, Morocco, Russia, and Cuba.
Croatian media cited data from the Interior Ministry showing that since Croatia's entry into the Schengen zone the number of asylum seekers has increased by 800 percent compared to the same period last year, but more than 90 percent of them immediately move on to Western Europe.