AT THE entrance to a scruffy hotel across from Sarajevo’s main bus station, a huddle of young men are careful to cover their faces with scarves as they congregate around a payphone, waiting their turn to make a call home.

This group, thought to be Iraqi asylum-seekers, checked in together at the Sinovi Drine hotel three days ago, saying they had come for the skiing.

None of them had any sports equipment and the farthest they have moved is to a coffee shop in the old quarter of the city which is known to shelter immigrants in an upstairs dormitory.

The one receptionist on duty at the Sinovi Drine thumbs through the dog-eared notebook used to register guests. He points to the list of five names, all of them carrying Turkish passports.

The receptionist shrugs and says he has no idea why supposed Turkish holidaymakers are conversing in Arabic and seldom stray far from their cramped, sparsely furnished rooms.

“They paid cash for five days and I haven’t seen much of them, but we don’t question our guests,” he says, anxious to return to watching a televised English football match.

A search of the records of half a dozen rooming houses in the city shows how easy it is for this people-trafficking racket to operate.

Young men, aged between 20 and their early 30s, turn up in groups of no more than four or five, often carrying Turkish identity documents because Turks do not need a visa to enter Bosnia.

Some of these hotels do not even bother to keep a register and, even if they do, they are not required to pass on any information to the police.

The men are clean-shaven, in Western casual dress and book their rooms for no more than five days, always paying cash in advance but often leaving sooner with no warning.

The frustration of Bosnia’s fledgeling investigation force with the activities of the people-smugglers is obvious.

Edin Vranj, the head of Sarajevo’s immigration police, admits: “We urgently need new immigration laws as the traffickers are making fools of us with our stupid rules.” At present, Bosnia does not recognise the idea of “illegal entry”.

Mr Vranj points out a travel agency operating at one of the busiest crossroads in the old city. It has advertisements plastered across its front window offering accommodation in private homes where you pay cash only and no registration is required.

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