Tents, mud and cold:the terrible conditions of thousands of migrants stuck in Bosnia in the hope of reaching the European Union

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Bosnia, minors exposed to cold and violence among migrants at the border

Update February 2, 2021:Around 1000 refugee minors currently live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, half of whom are unaccompanied by an adult.The majority come from Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan and are hosted in refugee camps which, however, do not offer separate areas for minors.At least 50 do not even have a place in the "official" camps and do not receive food regularly.Overall, these minors are not protected and are exposed to health risks and violence, tells Zoran Arbutina on Deutsche Welle.

“For the last two months I have been sleeping in abandoned houses, eating what I received from organizations or locals,” said a 17-year-old boy, camping in Bihac.In these ruined buildings the cold of winter is felt and the fires that are lit inside to keep warm cause smoke that doesn't allow you to breathe well, continues the minor.«We tried to cross the border and now we are not allowed to return to the camps.Every time we come back they say there is no place for us.People here are cold.We have friends in the camp and they are warm and happy now,” said another 15-year-old Afghan boy.

The journalist of DW further explains that unaccompanied minors, the most vulnerable of all refugee groups, are often victims of violence:«Human traffickers treat children worse than adults.They carry them in car trunks or under seats,” said Dubravka Vranjanac, head of the emergency team for the north-western Balkans for Save the Children.(...) Even attempting to cross the border can be a traumatic experience, Vranjanac said:«There is a lot of fear»”, also due to the violent rejections by the Croatian police reported and documented by several entities.What is missing is not space for refugee minors, but a functioning system to host them:“There are vacancies but they are places where minors don't want to go.They prefer to be close to the border to be able to enter Europe, but those camps are full."This is why many children are on the streets, sleeping in abandoned buildings or in makeshift camps."

Save The Children he underlined the urgency of "reception facilities before children can freeze to death or suffer other serious damage to their health.Authorities must ensure immediate official registration and referral to reception facilities for all children, including unaccompanied minors.Registration is an essential first step to provide protection to the most vulnerable and cannot depend on available reception capacities."

For weeks, hundreds of people have been taking shelter in abandoned buildings in and around the northwestern Bosnian city of Bihac, covering themselves as best they can against the snow and frost, writes Reuters.The hope of these migrants fleeing their countries is to reach Croatia, a member country of the European Union, to enter Western Europe.

After the "Balkan route" - used by hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria and other countries to reach Europe - has been officially closed In 2016, thousands of people camped in the forest and in abandoned structures in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.From this point, every day migrants from Asia, the Middle East and North Africa try to overcome the guards at the border with Croatia, armed and equipped with night vision goggles.For years, abuses, violence and illegal pushbacks carried out by Croatian agents (often hooded) have been reported.Over time, numerous of these testimonies have been collected by non-governmental organizations, doctors and also by the UNHCR.Last November 10, the Office of the European Ombudsman he started an investigation building on Amnesty International's complaint against the European Commission to understand how the Commission "intends to ensure that the Croatian authorities respect fundamental rights in the context of border management operations".

Read also >> Croatian police are accused of violence and abuse of migrants on the border with Bosnia.Is the EU “complicit”?

To date, according to various estimates, there are approximately 8,000-9,000 migrants (5 thousand in official refugee camps and over 3 thousand outside these camps) living in the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina.The local population was initially well predisposed towards them, but then the mood changed, he said last November Deutsche Welle:"Now many are complaining of 'intolerable conditions' and they protest against the official and informal fields that have arisen over time".

The Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, blocked due to strong internal divisions, it has proven inadequate to several challenges, including the management of these thousands of people on the run, left without adequate shelter."I'm really sick, there's no one to take care of us here and the conditions are unsafe" he said to Reuters Ali, 16 years old, from Afghanistan, who slept for about 6 months in an abandoned bus after leaving a camp in Bihac:«The people who were supposed to help us came and took things from us and then sold them inside the camp or in other places.We have nothing here...help us."

Furthermore, last December 23, a fire destroyed the migrant center in Lipa, in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina.Daniele Bombardi, Caritas Italiana coordinator of South Eastern Europe, who works in the country with the Acli Peace Development Innovation Institute (Ipsia) he explained to Life that the camp suffered from complicated management:«IOM (International Organization for Migration) had a contract with the Bosnian government to manage the Lipa camp until the beginning of winter.In Lipa there is no water, services or electricity.People risked freezing to death and the IOM repeatedly warned the Bosnian government that it would not continue to work in those conditions and risk migrants dying in their custody.The Lipa camp is located 30 km from Bihač, literally in the middle of the mountains, the temperatures are very cold in winter."

Always up Life we read that "that of Lipa was in fact supposed to be a temporary camp but following the government's decision to transform it into an official camp, the adaptation works did not start, to ensure running water, electricity and heating because the Canton of Una Sana and the municipality of Bihač also opposed this decision from Sarajevo, declaring that they will no longer accept refugee camps near urban areas on their territory."In the end the structure was closed, but during the clearing operation the flames began to break out and destroyed the camp.Peter Van der Auweraert, IOM coordinator of migrant camps in Bosnia-Herzegovina, he wrote on Twitter that according to available information, a group of former residents set fire to three tents and containers after most of the migrants had left the camp.The reason behind this gesture would be not agreeing with the decision of the scheduled closure of the camp.

The journalist of International Annalisa Camilli in a reportage he says that after the Lipa fire, the situation worsened further:"According to the IOM, on 8 January around seven hundred people were placed in some heated tents set up in a few days by the army near the old camp, while more than 350 people were forced to remain in makeshift shelters inside Lipa or in wooden shacks scattered around the woods.(...) After the fire, the Lipa refugees recovered what they could:they covered part of the bunk beds with plastic sheets, they even transformed the containers that were intended for bathrooms and showers into dormitories".

«We are not terrorists, we are not animals, yet we are treated as if we were.Without water, without electricity, without heating, without being able to move except on foot" Mohammed Yasser, a Pakistani originally from Gujrat, tells the journalist while wrapped in a blanket to protect himself from the sub-zero temperatures.

Last January 5, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, he stated that the authorities of the Balkan country "have not guaranteed effective reception management and a functioning asylum system" and recalled that the European Union "has engaged with all actors since the beginning of the current crisis and has invited the authorities for months to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe".Peter Stano, spokesperson of the European Commission, he further said that «the Bosnian authorities should behave as a country aspiring to join the EU would.People's lives cannot be sacrificed for internal political power struggles."The Commission has also allocated 3.5 million euros of humanitarian aid for the humanitarian crisis of refugees and migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina.Millions in addition to the 4.5 million euros allocated in April 2020, bringing European Union humanitarian assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina at €13.8 million since 2018.

Several human rights organizations – Amnesty International, Jesuit Refugee Service Europe, Medecins du Monde Belgique and Refugee Rights Europe – in one joint statement published on January 12 report that "around 2,500 people, including 900 residents of the Lipa temporary camp, remain without basic accommodation in dangerous winter weather conditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina as authorities fail to provide adequate housing for migrants and asylum seekers and EU agencies continue to support short-term solutions."Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International's European Institutions Office, also said that accommodation would be “available to house the majority of people currently sleeping in precarious conditions in extremely cold temperatures in Bosnia and Herzegovina.What is missing is political will.Authorities at all levels must immediately provide adequate shelter and assistance to those in need."

Meanwhile, Johann Sattler, ambassador for the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina, reported that thanks to joint efforts the situation in Lipa has improved:"Migrants no longer sleep in the open."But, Sattler continues, more work is needed by the authorities to provide shelter to those still in critical accommodation.

Preview photo by Annalisa Camilli

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