Migrants In Bosnia: A Human Rights Crisis

Photo: International Organization for Migration

Waves and waves of migrants have been pouring into Bosnia, fleeing poverty and conflict in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. They hope to pass Bosnia, cross into Croatia and go further into Western Europe. However, many are stopped violently and systematically by the Croatian border police, who push these migrants and asylum seekers back from the border; this leaves thousands of them stuck in Bosnia with nowhere to go. Most of these people are near the Croatian border, in the northwestern canton of Una-Sana. There are widespread shortages in housing, water, food and heat/electricity, along with growing tensions, hostility and violence. These factors combined have degraded the conditions which migrants are in, and without many of their essential needs being met, the winter season is brutal for these migrants. These worsening conditions can be attributed to the dispute between authorities on how to handle the migrants as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

 The main dispute between the local authorities and the central government is which of them holds the responsibility to provide services to these migrants and asylum seekers, especially in Una-Sana Canton. In general, the national Ministry of Security holds the jurisdiction over migration policy, but it is the local authority that is responsible for finding suitable locations to house the migrants. However, the local authorities of Una-Sana, where the majority of migrants are, feel like the national government is being unfair by putting the burden of migrant management all on them; this in turn has led to growing hostility and tensions. For example, local authorities have regularly complained that the official camps attract migrants and asylum seekers to the region and had previously promised to close down the IOM-run (UN migration agency) camp in the main city Bihać. They followed through with this promise and left hundreds homeless. Not only are they threatening to close another camp down, they have also failed to prepare another open camp for winter, meaning when the cold Balkan conditions intensify, it will become unlivable. In fact, Human Rights Watch has criticized Bosnia for failing to protect the human rights of the migrants and asylum seekers. In October, the police moved 1,700 migrants from another camp to the Vučjak tent camp in Bihać, which was already overflowing with 700 migrants without access to running water, electricity or medical care. This camp’s conditions are unlivable and  are deteriorating so much that the Red Cross has stated they may not be able to operate there anymore. The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights of Migrants and the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner have urged the government to immediately relocate the migrants to livable conditions, asking it to work with local authorities to handle this crisis by complying with human rights. The mayor of Bihać responded by saying that the central authorities had failed to set up adequate accommodations that met humanitarian standards for the migrants and now is threatening to cut off services such as water and sanitation that the city has been providing to the camps.

 Furthermore, though the EU has provided emergency funds of  €60 million to Bosnia for building migrant facilities for those stranded there, Bosnia has not kept up its end of the bargain. To make matters even worse, “Mismanagement, corruption and a willingness to cooperate on the local and regional level have also meant that the already existing migrant centers cannot be run at full capacity.” In fact, there have been reports of local authorities emptying out existing migrant shelters and pushing asylum seekers and migrants into the forest and out of the cities, where they have been left to fend for themselves. After doing so, the police have moved in to block any migrants or refugees from passing into their city. Similarly, in other regions the police have been deployed “along a main transit highway to prevent migrants from entering their territory” and Bosnia has also started to enforce its decision to ban all new migrant arrivals. Both these decisions are in violation of Bosnia’s human rights and immigration laws, creating a human rights crisis. Due to the increasing number of migrants, shortage of housing and violent pushbacks at the Croatian border, there are thousands of migrants sleeping out in the cold. Most recently, hundreds were left without shelter as the Lipa camp burned down after being deemed unlivable. The ministry of Bosnia has requested that local authorities relocate the migrants, but the local authorities and the mayor have made it clear that they will not be cooperating. As can clearly be seen, the disputes and conflicts between the government and local authorities have negatively impacted migrants and asylum seekers.

The government has also voiced its disdain for the migrants. In April 2020, Minister of Security Fahrudin Radončić stated that “asylum seekers and migrants were a security threat and an economic burden that Bosnia could not afford during the pandemic and promised to deport all of them from the country.” Additionally, this anti-migration rhetoric has been used increasingly to gain political points, intensifying leading up to the elections in November. For example, Sej Ramić ran on an anti-asylum seeker and migrant platform for mayor of Una-Sana, petitioning and protesting to get the camps moved out of the canton. Moreover, the pandemic has provided another opportunity to portray the asylum seekers and migrants in a negative light. The politicians have used them as a scapegoat since the beginning of the pandemic, calling them “virus spreaders,” in addition to them already being stereotyped as thieves and criminals. The increased employment of this anti-migration rhetoric in politics and its corresponding media coverage has influenced the public as well; in fact, this has led to the creation of multiple private Facebook pages filled with hate speech and threats towards the migrants, asylum seekers and even aid workers. These threats are sometimes followed by real world action.

These real world actions involve Bosnian residents participating in acts of violence to emphasize their messages of hate. In August, a main road leading to the northeast town of Velika Kladuša was blocked by residents in order to prevent a bus filled with asylum seekers and migrants from entering; the following days were filled with protest and violent actions against these asylum seekers and migrants. Then in September, two men nearby were attacked by vigilantes, who had also burned down an abandoned house where migrants and asylum seekers had been given permission to stay. Bihać also reported similar attacks. However, it is not only the residents engaging in this physical violence. Officers from a special forces unit have beaten up asylum seekers who are living outside the official camps. Even volunteers and aid workers are being targeted with online and offline threats. Migrants and asylum seekers face this violence at the hands of Croatian police as well; the Danish Refugee Council has collected “testimonies from more than 70 refugees and migrants at the Miral camp in western Bosnia after they were violently pushed back from Croatia,” describing the abuse as horrific with people sustaining severe injuries.

All this hostility is making it difficult for aid workers to provide aid. This is because many of the migrants and asylum seekers are living in remote places and in squats, avoiding main roads and towns, and in hiding; this makes it harder to get the aid to people that need it. In fact, many migrants who have faced a lot of pushback are retreating back to other countries where there are better conditions and places to stay. Regarding the current situation, multiple aid organizations, including Danish Refugee Council, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN Migration Agency, have called for authorities and the government to find alternative solutions immediately, as the current conditions are inhumane. Unless the government and the local authorities stop arguing and instead work together to find a solution, the condition for these migrants and asylum seekers will continue to worsen and be unlivable.