Hundreds of migrants are taking shelter in abandoned buildings in and around the northwestern Bosnian town of Bihac, wrapping up as best they can against the snow and freezing weather and hoping eventually to reach EU member Croatia across the border.
Bosnia has since early 2018 become part of a transit route for thousands of migrants from Asia, the Middle East and North Africa aiming to reach Europe’s wealthier countries.
But it has become increasingly difficult to cross EU borders and impoverished Bosnia has become a cul de sac with its ethnically divided government unable to cope, leaving hundreds of people without proper shelter.
Ali, 16, from Afghanistan, has been sleeping in an abandoned bus for almost six months after he left a Bihac camp.
“I’m in really a bad way, there’s no one to look after us here and the conditions are not safe here,” he told Reuters.
“People who are supposed to support us have been coming and taking things from us and then selling those things inside the camp or in other places. We have nothing here ... Please help us.”
There are about 8,000 migrants in Bosnia, some 6,500 in camps around the capital Sarajevo and in the north western corner of the country bordering Croatia.
Migrants wait in lines for food handouts during snowfall at the Lipa camp, outside Bihac, Bosnia. Source: AP
On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell talked by phone with Bosnia’s presidency Serb chairman Milorad Dodik, urging Bosnian authorities to improve dire humanitarian conditions of migrants and open centres more evenly distributed across the whole country.
The Serb and Croat-dominated parts of Bosnia refuse to accommodate any migrants, most of whom come from Muslim countries.
“Borrell stressed that failing to do so would have severe consequences for the reputation of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” his office said in a statement.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which is running the Bosnian camps, said its mobile teams are helping around 1,000 people squatting in houses that were deserted or destroyed during the Bosnian war in the 1990s.
A migrant stands next to a fence during snowfall by the Lipa camp, outside Bihac, Bosnia Source: AP
“They don’t have the possibility of regular food distribution,” said IOM camp manager and coordinator Natasa Omerovic.
“They can’t seek medical assistance.”
Until last week, an additional 900 people were left without shelter after the Lipa camp, some 26 km away, was set on fire just as the IOM decided to withdraw because it was not warm enough for winter.
The Bosnian army has started to put around half the migrants in some 20 tents fitted with heating set up next to the burnt-out camp, with aid groups supplying clothes, blankets and food.
The other half remains sleeping rough in a nearby forest, waiting for a solution.
On Sunday evening, a group which found shelter in an abandoned house in Bihac ate a modest dinner cooked under torchlight on an improvised fire.
Migrants warm themselves around a fire in a makeshift tent at the Lipa camp, outside Bihac, Bosnia Source: AP
They slept on the dirty concrete floor without water. Some wore only plastic slippers in the snow.
“Too hard, life here,” said Shabaz Kan from Afghanistan.
With AFP.
