The application came from Croatia and they are requesting 80 workers (45 waiters, 5 cleaning maids and 30 housemaids). Required activities are offered in Dubrovnik and Mljet, the BiH Employment Service told Oslobodjenje.

Croatian citizenship

Although the BiH Employment Service announced an open call for these positions through the Bureau of Employment, the announcement hasn't been realized because the employer requested that the workers could only be persons with Croatian citizenship. The reason for this requirement is that the Republic of Croatia does not have specified quotas for foreign workers, and because of that they can't provide work permits for these workers in their country.

According to unofficial estimates, about 5,000 to 10,000 persons leave Bosnia during the summer season for seasonal work. Most of them go to Croatia and Montenegro as seasonal workers in tourism. Another group of seasonal workers takes part in construction. They also find jobs in Serbia and in some countries of the EU.

The problem is that some of them work on the black market in these countries and some citizens of BiH who have citizenship and therefore passports from foreign countries aren't treated as foreign workers, so we don't have precise data of the number of seasonal workers who go abroad, the Employment Service said.

No requests for seasonal workers

One of the European countries in which there is a need for seasonal workers is Austria.

"The BiH Employment Service has good contacts with the Austrian Employment Service and in the last year, several announcements have been made that require a labor force from Bosnia. It is the same procedure for seasonal workers. In case that some of the employers from Austria announce a request for seasonal workers from Bosnia, we will enable to our citizens to apply for these jobs,'' the Employment Service said.