EU denounces conditions for hundreds of migrants in Bosnia

The European Union has denounced the living conditions of hundreds of homeless migrants in Bosnia.

The migrants have been left homeless in freezing and rainy conditions since their camp near the northwestern town of Bihac burned down last month.

To this end, EU envoy Johann Sattler said Saturday the conditions were "completely unacceptable".

“The situation is completely unacceptable,” he said

Sattler, the EU’s Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said after a meeting with Bosnia’s Security Minister Selmo Cikotic: "Lives and basic human rights of many hundreds of people are seriously jeopardised."

The aim of the meeting was “to discuss urgent solutions for the extremely concerning migration situation”, the statement said.

Fire engulfed the Lipa migrant centre in northwestern Bosnia on December 23. There were no casualties from the blaze but much of the infrastructure of the site was destroyed.

Police believe the blaze was started deliberately by migrants living there to protest the withdrawal of the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which had been running the camp.

The IOM had left complaining that the accommodation was not fit to house people during the cold winter months.

Opened in April, the Lipa camp had never been hooked up with electricity or running water.

Bosnia lies on the so-called Balkans route used since 2018 by tens of thousands of migrants heading towards Western Europe as they flee war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and in Africa.

The country currently hosts some 8,500 migrants.

The European Commission, which finances the running of several migrant camps in Bosnia, has called for another centre in Bihac to be reopened, but local and regional officials oppose the idea.

The UN’s human rights office had already warned against “unacceptable suffering” of the migrants from the Lipa camp, calling for an urgent solution of the issue.

(with inputs)