Commissioner Ylva Johansson visits Bosnia's Lipa migrant camp
- 3 years ago
Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson toured a migrant camp near the border with EU member state Croatia, on the first day of her visit to the troubled country. https://www.eudebates.tv/debates/special-debates/migration/eu-sends-money-to-bosnia-and-herzegovina-for-migrants-and-refugees/ A senior European Union official has urged Bosnia to further improve conditions for thousands of migrants stuck in the Balkan country while trying to reach Western Europe.
#eudebates #Migration #Migrants #Asylum #refugees #Asylum #integration #Relocation #Frontex
On the face of it, the pictures before Christmas of people freezing in snow-covered makeshift tents near the Bosnia-Croatia border was, for many, just another all-too-familiar tale of woe for EU-bound migrants.
It’s a tale that highlights the dysfunctional nature of postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina and is an insight into how much both the European Union and local authorities want to keep migrants off their respective doorsteps.
Bosnia has emerged as a staging post for EU-bound migrants in the last couple of years. Around 70,000 are estimated to have arrived in the country since January 2018, with only a small fraction claiming asylum.
The majority try and make it into the EU via Croatia, to the north.
But border closures as a result of COVID-19 and reports of illegal pushbacks mean many end up marooned in northern Bosnia.
There are around 3,000 migrants in camps or shelters in the north-west region of Una Sana, which is where problems have arisen.
In the run-up to Christmas focus intensified on the Lipa camp, home to fewer than 1,000 of the migrants. It was opened last April but the EU and local authorities disagreed over its lifespan. Brussels saw it as a temporary, out-of-town solution amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Locals, keen to get the migrants away from their town centres, saw it is a permanent fix.
But with a harsh Balkan winter approaching, Lipa had not been connected for either drinking water or mains electricity.
It prompted the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to pull out of running the facility in protest on December 23, blaming local authorities.
But, delve a little deeper, and what emerges is a far more complex story.
A senior European Union official on Thursday urged Bosnia to further improve living conditions for thousands of migrants stuck in the Balkan country while trying to reach Western Europe.
Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson toured a migrant camp near the border with EU member state Croatia, on the first day of her visit to the troubled country.
The Lipa camp by the northwestern town of Bihac was at a center of a crisis in December, when hundreds of people faced freezing conditions there, fueling fears of a humanitarian disaster.
The camp was burnt down in a fire and migrants lived in make-shift tents with no heating or protection for days before Bosnia's armed forces brought in heated tents and other basic facilities.
#eudebates #Migration #Migrants #Asylum #refugees #Asylum #integration #Relocation #Frontex
On the face of it, the pictures before Christmas of people freezing in snow-covered makeshift tents near the Bosnia-Croatia border was, for many, just another all-too-familiar tale of woe for EU-bound migrants.
It’s a tale that highlights the dysfunctional nature of postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina and is an insight into how much both the European Union and local authorities want to keep migrants off their respective doorsteps.
Bosnia has emerged as a staging post for EU-bound migrants in the last couple of years. Around 70,000 are estimated to have arrived in the country since January 2018, with only a small fraction claiming asylum.
The majority try and make it into the EU via Croatia, to the north.
But border closures as a result of COVID-19 and reports of illegal pushbacks mean many end up marooned in northern Bosnia.
There are around 3,000 migrants in camps or shelters in the north-west region of Una Sana, which is where problems have arisen.
In the run-up to Christmas focus intensified on the Lipa camp, home to fewer than 1,000 of the migrants. It was opened last April but the EU and local authorities disagreed over its lifespan. Brussels saw it as a temporary, out-of-town solution amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Locals, keen to get the migrants away from their town centres, saw it is a permanent fix.
But with a harsh Balkan winter approaching, Lipa had not been connected for either drinking water or mains electricity.
It prompted the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to pull out of running the facility in protest on December 23, blaming local authorities.
But, delve a little deeper, and what emerges is a far more complex story.
A senior European Union official on Thursday urged Bosnia to further improve living conditions for thousands of migrants stuck in the Balkan country while trying to reach Western Europe.
Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson toured a migrant camp near the border with EU member state Croatia, on the first day of her visit to the troubled country.
The Lipa camp by the northwestern town of Bihac was at a center of a crisis in December, when hundreds of people faced freezing conditions there, fueling fears of a humanitarian disaster.
The camp was burnt down in a fire and migrants lived in make-shift tents with no heating or protection for days before Bosnia's armed forces brought in heated tents and other basic facilities.