In the Lipa refugee camp near Bihac, a type of deportation detention is being created, which is financed by the European Union (EU). The non-governmental sector fears that it could become a real detention at the EU’s external border.
The Detention Center cannot be seen from the outside. But what is visible are the bars on the containers, although the high fence should protect from prying eyes. Here, in the Lipa migrant center, a deportation detention unit is being created.
In this camp, which is located about 25 kilometers south of Bihac, many people who failed in their attempts to cross the border with neighboring Croatia and thus reach the EU were left here. As a rule, journalists are not allowed access to the camp. Even the manager of the camp doesn’t have the key to that new tract, points out the Austrian politician Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic, who managed to visit the camp: “They say it’s not open yet. But they don’t know who will manage it and when it will open. They don’t even know who will be in charge and what will happen next.” Then why even establish such an area in the middle of nowhere?
Unclear purpose
It is also not clear what purpose it serves. During a quick visit to the camp, the head of the EU Delegation for BiH, Johann Sattler, said that the tract serves to protect the people of Lipa from “those who make trouble”. However, the camp’s leadership and the International Organization for Migration report that there are almost no conflicts or violence.
Non-governmental organizations have suspected for a long time that deportation detentions could be created outside the EU so that refugees and migrants could be forcibly returned before they can claim asylum in the EU. The visit of the Hungarian EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) last November points to this. Várhelyi then announced the pilot project in Lipa and said that “false asylum seekers must be kept for so long until they are returned to their countries of origin”.
Detention for deportation in exchange for accession negotiations?
Petar Rosandic from the Viennese humanitarian organization “SOS Balkanroute” has been following the debate surrounding the Lipa camp since its inception. He believes that given BiH’s candidate status, a kind of agreement has been reached, which, according to him, implies that the country will become an “expulsion zone” for the EU. And the ”reward” for that could be help during the accession process and the prospect of quick accession negotiations, Rosandic points out.
The Delegation of the EU in BiH and the office of Várhelyi responded to inquiry: “An effective and humane return policy for persons who do not have the right to international protection is of key importance in order to guarantee that all those who have this right can submit their requests in a timely manner check.” However, according to international law, every person has the right to an individual check of an asylum request.
The legal basis has not been resolved
But that is not self-evident in this area, where the Lipa camp is located, because it has already been documented that Croatia returns these people to BiH without individual checks of asylum seekers, and often with the use of violence. And the complete verification of the asylum application can hardly be carried out within 72 hours. That’s how long, according to the EU Commission, refugees and migrants can stay in the new deportation tract in Lipa. The legal basis for that time period is not clear, nor is the legal basis for the tract itself, DW reports.
