A Balkans-based network of human rights groups has released a report on pushbacks against migrants in Greece and Croatia. It claims that systematic violence by Croatian and Greek authorities often amounts to "torture or inhuman and degrading treatment."
Migrants and refugees in Bosnian camps are becoming infected with COVID-19 at an increasing rate. Humanitarian workers say most cases are mild and the situation is "under control."
Croatian police are investigating reports that an Afghan woman was sexually harassed at the country’s border with Bosnia-Herzegovina in the middle of February. She says she was held at knife-point and asked to strip naked whilst being touched by officers.
The IOM in Bosnia has called for the international community to take "urgent action to end violent pushbacks and collective expulsions of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, including minors, along the Croatian border with Bosnia Herzegovina."
The UN refugee agency UNHCR says it has observed "several hundred cases" of suspected pushbacks in the Aegean Sea since the beginning of last year. It is stepping up pressure on Greece to investigate the reports.
In the town of Velika Kledusa, most migrants have only one ambition: to get to Croatia and continue their journey to western Europe. Some of them have already attempted the crossing more than twenty times. Each time they try, they risk being pushed back by force by Croatian police.
A truck carrying Syrian migrants crashed near the Croatia-Bosnia border on Monday. Croatian media reported that four migrants died in the accident and at least 11 people were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries.
A landmine exploded in central Croatia killing one migrant and injuring several others. The place where the incident happened remains full of explosives left over from the war nearly three decades ago.
Bosnian authorities have announced that over 100 migrants who had been sleeping rough have been moved into asylum centers. Nearly half of those moved were reportedly children.
The number of individuals seeking asylum in Austria has risen by roughly 10% in 2020. During the same period, the overall number of people seeking protection in the EU dropped by 31%.
Tomo Knezevic, director of the "Caritas" charity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is taking Europe to task: His chapter of the global Catholic charity has received "far too little support" in its efforts to care for migrants, he said in an interview. He is appealing for more help from sister organizations across Europe.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has called on the European Union to adopt urgent measures to end violence on migrants and refugees, including minors, at the European Union's external borders.