Two police officers and an IOM employee suffered minor injuries in clashes at the Blazuj migrant reception center near Sarajevo on Wednesday, police said. More than 3,000 migrants are currently housed at the former military barracks.
Aid workers are increasingly alarmed about the worsening situation of the some 1,500 migrants stuck in northwest Bosnia, hundreds of whom are staying in abandoned buildings and makeshift forest settlements with little access to aid. InfoMigrants spoke with German streetwork doctor Gerhard Trabert about his patients' physical and mental health, a lack of cooperation at the expense of the migrants and what ought to happen next.
Bosnian Premier Zoran Tegeltija has said that Bosnia-Herzegovina can't handle the migrant crisis on its own. The country needs support from the European Union, not just financially, he said in an interview published on January 15.
Instead of going to classes and learning lessons for life, migrant children on the move are often stuck simply trying to survive. In Bosnia, some have to help their parents scheme their escape into the EU instead of enjoying their childhood.
Amnesty International and aid workers continue to sound the alarm amid the worsening situation of migrants in northwest Bosnia. While those staying at the Lipa camp now have heated tents, hundreds in makeshift forest settlements and abandoned buildings have little access to aid.
Tents, mud and cold: Refugees and migrants are contending with miserable conditions in Bosnia-Herzegovina as the EU continues to keep its borders closed, Marina Strauss reports from Bihac.
Bosnia has prepared heated tents for around 900 migrants, who were stranded in a snowstorm after their camp burnt down. The Balkan country has received criticism for leaving refugees unsheltered.
The Danish Refugee Council is providing emergency relief to the hundreds of migrants stranded at the former Lipa camp in north-western Bosnia. The organization's secretary general, Charlotte Slente, says EU migration policy is partly to blame for the crisis.
Bosnian authorities have reportedly delivered beds and mattresses to migrants stranded at the site of the destroyed Lipa camp. Pressure is mounting in Europe for urgent solutions to be found.
Officials from the European Union and the UN migration agency IOM have called on Bosnian authorities to relocate migrants and refugees who are sleeping rough to appropriate accommodation. Meanwhile, migrants at Lipa camp ended their hunger strike.
Harsh weather conditions, poor hosting facilities and the constant relocation of migrants could lead to a humanitarian disaster for migrants in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy's Catholic charity Caritas has warned.
About 1,000 migrants are living in dire conditions in freezing temperatures in northwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina after they were forced to leave a camp in Lipa near Bihac. The Lipa camp was destroyed by a fire set up by a group of migrants when they heard that the facility would be closed for renovation work.