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Of: TT
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1 of 3 | Photo: Marco Sanye / AP / TT
Many migrants who have arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina have nowhere to go. Here, two Afghan families walk through the field outside the Bosnian border town of Velika Kladusa on December 10. It is a few miles north of the Lipa camp.
A camp for migrants and refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina is closed.
Living conditions there have been condemned, ignored by the Bosnian authorities, and another 1,000 people may be allowed to settle in the forest during the winter.
The Lipa camp is located near the border with Croatia, an EU country, and houses about 1,300 people. The International Agency for Migration (IOM) has previously withdrawn funding for the initially temporary camp as a brand, and is now deciding to shut it down entirely, Bosnian media report.
When the temperature dropped, many in the camp were forced to sleep outdoors or in simpler tents. The electricity comes from a single generator, and the water comes with trucks coming down the only gravel road that leads there, writes Balkan Insight.
Alarmed by the crisis
Just over a week ago, the Bosnian EU delegation called on the country to at least give the residents of the camp a proper roof over their heads. We must act immediately, was the message. The EU has provided the authorities with “substantial financial and technical support,” he added.
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic wrote a letter to Bosnian leaders warning that a humanitarian crisis was imminent, especially in the wake of the pandemic.
The people of the Lipa countryside have left their home countries to seek refuge in Europe. When the Union’s borders have been closed again, many have ended up on the other side, in neighboring countries that have asked European help to take care of them.
The camp opened earlier this year and during the year other temporary camps in the country were closed, after which people ended up in an already full camp in Lipa.
Political stalemate
Migration is a difficult obstacle in Bosnia. All the facilities are located in the Bosnian-Croatian part of the country, as the Serbian part does not want to receive any migrants. Negotiations in the country’s Council of Ministers have led to nothing: the camp has not become a permanent facility, no decisions have been made before winter, and there is no answer on where migrants should go, reports the Dnevni newspaper. Avaz.
IOM announces that it will distribute breakfasts and sleeping bags to people who stay when the camp closes. Many are expected to settle in the forest, in abandoned buildings, try to find a place in another camp or try to enter Croatia.
It is estimated that around a quarter of the roughly 10,000 migrants and refugees living in the country lack a real place to live.
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