The issue that the North Atlantic Council of KarMUN 2019 is concerned with is the new route of migration that leads through the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the effect it has on the country. The New Balkan route for migration opened because the route previously followed has been closed down by the governments of Hungary, Serbia and Croatia in 2016. Until recently, most people avoided Bosnia, because its mountainous landscape posed a serious and unnecessary challenge, and instead attempted to cross Serbia and dodge Hungarian and Croatian authorities to reach the European Union. According to Bosnian authorities, more than 700 migrants entered the country only within the first three months of 2018, and the number grew as the weather got warmer. By August, more than 4000 people were sheltered in informal refugee shelters along the Croatian border, around 3000 of them in the city of Bihac, a city of 61 000 near the border. Altogether 20,000-21,000 people entered Bosnia in 2018, meaning that 3 out of 4 migrants managed to cross to Croatia illegally, most probably with the help of smugglers. Spain believes a global framework for managing migration should be based around the three principles: the international community must help ensure refugees seek asylum in the first country that can offer protection; We need to improve the ways we distinguish between refugees fleeing persecution and economic migrants; We must maintain the right and obligation of all states to control their borders. It is also an opportunity to reduce vulnerabilities of migrants, including prevention of human trafficking and modern slavery, and for all countries to commit to fully implementing existing legal frameworks which protect fundamental human rights for their own citizens and for migrants. Spain believes that any mechanism or arrangement for follow-up to agreements should: Be a “light touch” monitoring mechanism; Fit within existing UN governance structures and not lead to the creation of any new structures; Ensure participating countries have regular opportunities for inputting into the process; Have an appropriate role for the International Organization for Migration, taking advantage of their introduction into the UN system and the IOM’s policy and technical expertise.
