Really closed was the so-called Balkan route never. However, the closure of the Greek-Greek border in early 2016 temporarily led to a significant decline in the number of refugees. This has changed: in recent months, tens of thousands of migrants have tried to enter the EU via the Western Balkans countries - more than in a long time. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, therefore, a humanitarian catastrophe is starting.
This year, according to official Bosnian estimates, more than 30,000 refugees have arrived, with around 8,000 currently living in Bosnian territory. They are stranded there because Croatia acts extremely rigidly against migrants and apparently pushes many refugees back illegally across the border. According to the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN), Croatian security forces are also planning systematic firearms missions, and only last Saturday a police officer in Croatia shot a fugitive critically. "This shows the deep crisis in the EU rule of law and asylum system" said Simon Campbell, one of the BVMN spokesman, SPIEGEL.
In Bosnia, the authorities have been overwhelmed by the high number of refugees for months, and due to a lack of competence between local governments and central government, they are unable to accommodate migrants under reasonably bearable conditions. At present, groups of hundreds of refugees camp in Sarajevo and the northeastern Bosnian city of Tuzla. Particularly dramatic, however, is the location near the town of Bihac in the northwestern Bosnian canton of Una-Sana, where thousands of refugees are waiting for an opportunity to illegally cross the border into Croatia.
Elvis Barukcic / AFP
Migrants in the Vucjak camp: waiting for the opportunity to get to Croatia
The worst conditions prevail in the improvised tent camp Vucjak, which is located on a former landfill near Bihac. Hundreds of people have been waiting there since July without electricity and hygienic facilities in crowded tents. They are only supplied with food by the Red Cross and private activists. The Bosnian state refuses any help.
German journalist Dirk Planert, who organized humanitarian transports to Bihac during the Bosnian war and set up a medical tent in Vucjak this summer, speaks to SPIEGEL of "catastrophic, absolutely inhuman states". "Almost everyone has scabies, many are sick, there is not enough food," says Planert.
Escalated the situation is mainly because of the hard Croatian push-back practice
Last week, the regional government of the canton of Una-Sana imposed a curfew on Vucjak and another camp near Bihac, as evidenced by more and more felonies by refugees in the region and angry residents already demonstrating against the migrants. According to Bosnian media, refugees mainly commit to burglaries in houses as well as food and car thefts. Planert says that some of the past months have seen "chaotic conditions" on the streets of Bihac, and refugees have been beating each other over and over again, and the anger of the locals is understandable.
Darko Vojinovic / DPA
Bihac: Migrants wait in the camp to be cared for by the Red Cross
On the one hand, the situation escalated because of the harsh Croatian border policy, and on the other hand because the EU has so far left Bosnia-Herzegovina practically alone in tackling the refugee problem. Croatian civil rights activists estimate that around 10,000 refugees were illegally returned to Bosnia last year, with Croatian police apparently crossing the border.
According to information provided by the BVMN, Croatian police have fired firearms 31 times this year alone, and in 33 cases weapons have been used to intimidate. The network has collected the numbers through interviews, but there is no concrete evidence. A request of SPIEGEL to the accusation answered the Croatian Ministry of Interior not yet.
However, the fugitive shot dead on Saturday in the border region with Slovenia also makes headlines in Croatia. According to official representation, a gun had accidentally released from the weapon of a police officer. The victim is in a hospital in the port city of Rijeka and is now out of danger.
BVMN activist Campbell told SPIEGEL that it was extremely worrying that refugees were being shot at the borders of the European Union. "The EU must ensure that people at the Croatian border can finally apply for asylum in a normal and orderly manner."