In 2010 about 340.000 foreigners entered and stayed in BiH on various grounds, said director of the Foreigners' Affairs Service of BiH, Dragan Mektic at a press conference presenting the results of the Service in the past year.

About 8.500 foreigners requested and most of them received a long-term stay permit in our country on various grounds.

The service conducted over 6.000 inspections and in 1.350 cases issued a decision on cancellation of residence of alien residents in BiH.

In case of 354 persons the service determined control measures and 312 people were placed in the Immigration Center.

"Based on readmission agreement, we accepted 53 foreigners from third countries, which means that BiH is not used largely for transit of immigrant to Western Europe or other countries", said Mektic, adding that five or six years ago, about thousand illegal immigrants were received by the immigration center a month on the basis of readmission in BiH.

Mektic said that now there is increased influx of immigrants from northern Africa who typically do not have any documents and added that only seven months ago, most migrant workers in BiH were from neighboring countries.