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An Afghan girl walks through the Bosnian-Croatian border area in slush
Photo: Alessio Mamo
They do not play »robbers and gendarmes«, but migrants who are chased by border police: children from refugee families who are stranded in Bosnia-Herzegovina sometimes imitate »The Game« - the game that is everyday life for them.
This is how asylum seekers describe their attempts to cross the border into Croatia in order to get into the EU.
Most of them are brutally stopped and forced back by border guards - and some children have to watch their parents being robbed, beaten and humiliated or are exposed to violence themselves.
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Again and again, families with small children set off to make it to the EU via the Balkan route
Photo: Alessio Mamo
Croatian border police "beat and kicked the migrants and forced them to run the gauntlet between the police lines," according to a report by "Human Rights Watch" on the systematic human rights violations.
"The violence also hit women and children." The asylum seekers who were caught were also not brought back to the place of their entry, but rather to remote areas - "in some cases they were forced to cross ice-cold streams."
Human rights organizations worldwide have been criticizing the illegal rejections under international law, the so-called pushbacks, for years, and the involvement of Frontex border guards in pushbacks at EU external borders is currently being investigated.
Nevertheless, the controversial practice that denies refugees the opportunity to apply for asylum continues
in the EU.
The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) documented around 16,000 illegal pushbacks by Croatian border guards last year alone, including 800 cases by children.
"Compared to the previous months, the rate of women and children reporting pushbacks has increased," said a November 2020 report.
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Surviving in sub-freezing temperatures: teenagers light a fire
Photo: Alessio Mamo
Ever since EU countries sealed off the Balkan route, more and more refugees have been gathering in Bosnia-Herzegovina, including many families - the country has become a bottleneck for the way to Western Europe.
In the past winter months the situation has worsened dramatically.
Several official refugee camps have been closed.
In December 2020 the “International Organization for Migration” (IOM) had the Lipa reception center near Bihac evacuated because there was neither water nor electricity there.
But there was no substitute accommodation - around 1,300 people suddenly stood on the street.
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The Lipa refugee camp had to be evacuated - many of the former residents are now homeless
Photo: Kemal Softic / AP
The “International Organization for Migration” (IOM) estimates that there are currently between 9,000 and 10,000 refugees in Bosnia-Herzegovina, around 3,000 people camp in freezing temperatures without water or electricity in abandoned houses or factory buildings, in tents or in the forest.
It's not a place to stay - so people keep trying desperately to cross the line.
The Italian photographer Alessio Mamo accompanied families from Afghanistan with babies and small children.
See in the photo gallery how refugee children perceive life in a suspended state:
Icon: The mirror
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