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Hundreds of refugees from the burned-out Lipa reception center had to endure the cold of winter in Bosnia. Andrea beer it was there when they were finally able to leave the camp.
By Andrea Beer, studio ARD Vienna, currently. Bihac
Several buses are parked at a small intersection in the middle of the countryside near Camp Lipa, about 25 kilometers from Bihac. Hundreds of refugees and migrants wait here, carrying their belongings in large colored plastic bags. When they’re supposed to put them in the trunk and get in, there’s a certain discomfort. The groups try to stay together because the destination of the trip is not clear, as one of them says: “I don’t even know where we are going. They will take us to another place. But nobody told us where.”
No water, no electricity, no doctor
No, says this young man from the Islamabad area of Pakistan. It is much hotter in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina than in recent days. But despite the sun, she wraps herself in a gray-green plaid wool blanket. Like many of the people who wait here, he seems tired and exhausted. He was staying at Camp Lipa for six months, he says. But the last few days would have been particularly exhausting. Due to a dispute with local authorities and the central government in Sarajevo, the International Organization for Migration, IOM, briefly withdrew from Camp Lipa. Nobody jumped and 1200 people stayed with him. No water, no electricity, no doctor.
Food was only allowed to be distributed once a day. On Tuesday morning, the Austrian non-governmental organization SOS Balkanroute provided 1,200 servings. Petar Rosantica from Vienna helped organize. You’ve heard that you have to take people away, and of course you think that’s a good thing: “Fortunately. I hope it’s a better place,” he says.
Three young men have just received their ration, they too seem exhausted. Mohammed speaks English better, they say, he should speak for them. “They have given us much less in recent days than they do today,” he says, holding up a plastic bag of white bread.
The destination is only known in the afternoon.
Several refugee organizations are present and IOM staff can also be seen this morning. Bosnian police are checking and suddenly there is movement. The camp should be evacuated, it is said, surprisingly for everyone. And let them go down a dirt road. Somehow some of them seem happy to go somewhere and not have to spend another night in this devastating place in the burned and abandoned camp. “Where are they taking us?” Many ask. A bus takes us to Italy, says one, not to Germany. They laugh.
Even as you go, you don’t know where you are going. And the destination is only known in the afternoon. Refugees and migrants from the Lipa camp near Bihac arrive in Bradina, about 30 kilometers south of Sarajevo. There they are housed in a building that belongs to the Bosnian army. It should be a temporary solution until Camp Lipa is rebuilt, according to the Ministry of Security.
Thousands are still homeless
So the people from Camp Lipa are now close to Sarajevo. But the issue remains in the region. More than 2,000 refugees and migrants remain homeless in the area. They live in the forest or in empty buildings. Existing refugee camps are overcrowded.
According to Petar Rosandic, refugee policy must fundamentally change not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina: “The fundamental thing now is to create humane conditions, humanitarian camps. As refugee workers, we know that camps are not a long-term solution.” Good dynamics did not develop in the camps. That is why an EU asylum center is needed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, “where people get answers on whether or not they have approved an asylum application. But they ultimately need answers.”
