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Refugees in Bosnia: »Sanitary facilities? There is not any. Electricity? Neither «

2021-01-05T15:25:42.745Z


Refugees live under inhumane conditions on the EU's external border. In the video, IOM head of mission Peter Van der Auweraert explains how this came about - and calls for a political solution.


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They shout out their anger and desperation: Refugees in the Bosnian camp Lipa are demanding more support and permanent accommodation.

For days, around 900 men have been camping here outdoors, in snow and rain - and are in danger of freezing to death.

The conditions in the camp: inhumane.

Peter van der Auweraert, Head of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

»It was

pouring rain

yesterday.

You see people who wear jackets but are still soaked to the bone.

Sanitary facilities?

There is not any.

Electricity?

There is not any.

People make fire to keep warm and to boil water.

But there are no sanitary facilities and at night it is pitch black in the camp.

The local police are in the area, but 900 migrants are in such an uncontrolled environment - it's not a good place to live. "


The setting of this refugee drama: the area between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, an EU external border.

Since the traditional Balkan route via Hungary was sealed off in 2015, transit through Bosnia has been an alternative.

Many refugees try to illegally make their way through the forests to the EU.

Photos from the camp in Lipa at the end of November: Even then it wasn't winter-proof.

The camp was set up as a temporary measure in the spring.

The refugees should wait here for their asylum applications to be processed.

But shortly before Christmas the situation escalated: There was a fire in the refugee camp shortly after the International Organization for Migration decided to vacate the camp.

The IOM could no longer guarantee the safety of the refugees because the Bosnian authorities had refused to equip the camp sufficiently for the cold temperatures.

Peter van der Auweraert, Head of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)


»A few weeks before we cleared the camp, it had snowed - and a tent collapsed under the load of snow.

Fortunately it was a prayer tent and nobody prayed there in the middle of the night, but it shows why people couldn't stay there any longer.

And while it doesn't sound particularly intuitive, at the time it was safer for migrants to join the groups and live in abandoned buildings than stay at Camp Lipa and risk tents catching fire when people warm up in them , or that the tents collapse under the snow. "

Before New Year's Eve, the refugees were supposed to be brought to better accommodation in the nearby town of Bihac - but the column didn't get far, people had to spend the night on the buses.

The reason: regional authorities and angry residents protested against the transfer.

Peter van der Auweraert, Head of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

»I think people thought that when we open Camp Bira, many refugees would come back to Bihac city center, even though the camp is actually not in the center. «


Now there is still no solution in sight.

Although there is enough winter-proof accommodation for the homeless refugees, the Bosnian authorities cannot agree on a distribution.

And the federal government is not planning to bring refugees from Bosnia to Germany either.

Peter van der Auweraert, Head of Mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

»The short-term problem is not the money, it is a problem to come to a political decision.

And that makes it even more painful when you see people sleeping outside. "


The Bosnian army has now set up makeshift tents in Lipa.

But they hardly help against the cold - and most of the refugees want to get on as quickly as possible anyway: over the mountains and forests towards the EU.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-01-05

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