Croatian police on Friday fired on a group of migrants trying to irregularly reach neighboring Slovenia, local officials said. One man was critically injured. Thousands of migrants trying to reach western Europe are stuck in the Balkans.
After being overwhelmed with migrants, authorities in the Bosnian city of Bihac moved hundreds of them to an old garbage dump. DW looks into key elements of what has become an escalating crisis.
As more and more refugees and migrants try to make it to Western Europe via the western Balkan route, and with winter approaching, the EU and NGOs have warned of a humanitarian crisis in the Vucjak migrant camp and similar facilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina near the border with Croatia. On Friday, hundreds of locals protested against the migrants' presence.
Conditions in the Vucjak refugee camp in the northwest of the country are dire. The makeshift camp, which was put up in the summer, is dirty, unhygienic, and everything is in short supply as winter approaches.
The Vucjak migrant camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina is reportedly about to be shut down following sustained criticism of its dangerous living conditions. The European Council’s human rights chief welcomed the closure.
In the Vucjak migrant camp in Bosnia, over 800 people remain without running water, electricity or functioning toilets. Local authorities have announced that two other official camps will soon close, leaving more than 2,000 additional people sleeping outside. With winter approaching, many fear a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Bosnian government has announced that a new migrant hosting center will open soon to solve chronic overcrowding at the Vucjak camp in the Bihac area, which borders on Croatia.
A Croatian migrant rights group has placed a sign saying ''Welcome to Croatia - Country of torture'' at the border between Croatia and Bosnia to protest against reported cases of violence against migrants at the hands of the authorities. The protest is also directed against Croatia joining the Schengen zone.
The Bosnian government claims none of the local communities in the country agreed to the construction of new migrant centers in their territories.
Authorities in Slovenia, Italy, Bosnia and Croatia have dismantled an organization that allegedly smuggled migrants from the Balkans to EU countries like Italy.
Local authorities in the town of Bihac in Bosnia-Herzegovina have cut off the water supply to the nearby Vucjak migrant camp. They want to force the government to move migrants from the overcrowded site.
Around 1500 migrants were rounded up in northwestern Bosnia and moved to a camp in the country on Wednesday. The town of Bihac cannot provide adequate shelter for these people in the winter weather, authorities said.