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Refugees in the destroyed Lipa camp
Photo: Andy Spyra / DER SPIEGEL
Nasim Hussein tried thirteen times to get into the EU.
Thirteen times, he says, he was stopped by Croatian security forces, beaten up and dragged back to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Now he lives in a forest in the Bosnian-Croatian border area and wonders how he will survive the winter.
Hussein, a 21-year-old farmer's son from near Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, and a dozen other migrants have set up a tent camp made of branches and plastic sheeting to protect themselves from rain and snow.
They covered the mud floor with wooden pallets that they found on the rubbish in Bihać, the nearest town.
There is no water or electricity in the camp
The men sit together around a fire.
Despite the sub-zero temperatures, most of them are only wearing a sweater, some wear sandals.
You are trembling.
Hussein rubs his hands together.
His eyes are red.
He did not sleep because he was afraid of freezing to death in the thin sleeping bag.
Even so, he went to the river early in the morning to wash himself.
There is no water or electricity in their improvised camp.
Every now and then, aid organizations bring food to us, and migrants often eat stale bread for days.
“We are starving.
We're freezing, ”says Hussein.
"Animals are better off than we are."
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