Nezavisne novine: The Service for Foreigners’ Affairs has a data that there are around 50 persons, who reside in BiH, for whom security agencies have confirmed that are the threat for the national security of BiH, has been said by Dragan Mektić, director of the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs in BiH.
In conversation for "Nezavisne" Mektić points out that because of the problematic judicial decisions it is hard to expel these persons from BiH.
He states an example of Ayman Avad, who has in 2007 initiated a dispute before the Court of BiH due to losing his citizenship, and this court has solved his case recently, after which Avad has been placed in the Immigration center.
The Citizenship revision state commission has deprived more than 650 illegally assigned BiH citizenships. Why those people have not been expelled?
There have been 661 citizenships deprived and those are mostly the citizens of Afro-Asian origin. Around 580 citizenships from this group have been deprived because there is no connection between those people and BiH. Those people have not resided here. It is not known, or it is known partially how and where they have received those citizenships. Right now, we do not know and we are trying to determine where those persons are. The others have received the citizenship illegally, by hiding some facts or giving fake data. Those persons have been identified here, they have been issued personal identification cards, and are residing here, while a number of them have those documents, but do not live here. One number of them has submitted request for residence and a number of them, which has been approved, does not represent a threat for BiH. At the end, there is a third category of persons, who are in BiH illegally. Their residing has not been approved, because they represent security barrier.
Do you have a support in the Ministry of Security of BiH?
I am independent and in all these cases I work by the law. All my decisions are a subject of verification. The Court of BiH examines each decision I make. Neither resolution I make, has been canceled before the Court of BiH, which means that we have been working in accordance to the law. Comments of any other kind – if that should have been done and in what way, do not interest me.
How big is the group of persons, who represent security barrier for BiH?
Currently, that group, which represents a threat for national security or anything else, has around 50 persons. Among them there are persons, whose citizenship has been deprived, but who have initiated disputes before the Court of BiH. We cannot enter the procedure of their expelling while disputes at the Court do not get finished.
Such case is with Ayman Avad, who does not have valid BiH documents and for whom there are doubts that he is a threat for national security. He has recently been left from the Immigration center. How could that happen?
The resolution of the Commission, by which his citizenship has been taken away, is lastly final. The law confirms it and because of that, we have imprisoned him. In 2007 he has been left without the citizenship and has initiated administrative dispute before the Court of BiH. Now, when we have undertaken certain things towards that person, his resolution is being canceled and a status of the BiH citizen is being returned to him. I do not want to go into the judicial decision, but I ask myself why now. In the moment we have imprisoned him, he was a stranger. We are now obligated to set him free and wait for the next procedure.
The rumor says that there is no coordination between the Court of BiH and the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs around the affairs with foreigners, and that they are not interested to solve this problem…
There is no conflict. We have done our job. We have restricted Avad’s moving, because he represents a threat. I think it is not ok to give him back his citizenship once he has been imprisoned. Nothing was happening for two years, and then once we have imprisoned him, they have given him back his citizenship. These things could have happen a long time ago and we would have finished this story. Nothing happens for two years, and once we try to expel that person from BiH, then the court decides to set him free. In the Immigration center we have two more persons like that and now we wait for someone to cancel the resolution on taking away their citizenships again and when we are going to set them free. If someone is a threat to security, which has been confirmed by the agencies, then such subjects should be solved immediately, but not to keep them at courts for years.
Why is it that way?
I really do not know. I have tried to make these subjects urgent cases. Those persons are a threat to the national security; they have certain connections with terroristic activities. This has been confirmed by security agencies. It is normal by us that such subjects remain unsolved for years and they become active once the agencies try to do something. It would be normal to expel such persons from BiH.
Do the BiH governments know how many strangers are in the country, why did they come and how long will they stay?
We know. We are competent for all the foreigners, except for those in diplomatic statuses or in missions which are in BiH. We have all that information. We, for example, yearly cancel the residence of around 1.000 foreigners and dictate them to leave BiH. The service generally works by the law.