By Agencies

Northwestern border crossing with Croatia briefly closed to prevent about 100 people from entering the European Union.

Bosnian border police have stopped about 100 refugees and migrants from reaching the border with Croatia, a European Union member, amid a rise in the influx of people heading through the Balkans towards western Europe.

Croatia also sent police on its side of the border, according to Anel Ramic, interior minister of the Bosnian northwestern Unsko-Sanski canton.

The group had moved towards Croatia from the nearby town of Velika Kladusa. An estimated 3,000 migrants are currently situated across the area.

The International Red Cross says that the number of people migrating through the Balkans is on the rise and they are in dire need of basic humanitarian support. 

Authorities in Bosnia have struggled with the influx of thousands of people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia as many head there to avoid more heavily guarded routes through the Balkans in their bid to reach the EU.

Peter Van der Auweraert, from the International Organization for Migration, tweeted that the attempted group crossing on Monday was a "very worrying development that risks" creating a backlash.

Van der Auweraert explained in a phone interview with The Associated Press that the migrant influx has already put pressure on post-war Bosnia and any incidents could further strain the situation. Bosnians might start viewing migrants as "troublemakers" rather than people in need of help, he said.

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2018 - a record year 

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Monday that more than 5,600 migrants have reached Bosnia and Herzegovina so far this year, compared with only 754 in all of 2017.

The Red Cross also said that in Montenegro, 557 asylum requests were registered in May, the highest monthly figure in five years. 

Simon Missiri, regional director for Europe, said his group's Balkan offices need more assistance to help cope with the increased numbers.

Hundreds of thousands of people passed through the Balkans toward Europe at the peak of the mass migration in 2015. The flow eased for a while but has recently picked up pace with the new route through Bosnia.

Since peaking in 2015, the migrants' use of the Balkan route toward Western Europe has been impaired in part by Hungary's construction of razor-wire fences on its southern borders.