The detention unit built in the Lipa migrant camp near Bihac is illegal. This was established by the Commercial Court in Vienna, ruling on the lawsuit filed by the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) against SOS Balkanroute, a non-governmental organization that discovered the construction in the area of the Una-Sana Canton (USC) that disturbed the citizens.
ICMPD sought compensation from SOS Balkanroute before the Vienna Commercial Court, claiming that the information about the illegal construction had harmed the reputation of the Vienna-based international organization. The Commercial Court decided against their request, and the non-governmental organization SOS Balkanroute claims that the ICMPD failed to show the building permit in court or the legal basis for detaining the migrants.
Inside the Lipa camp, there was a construction of the so-called detention center, surrounded by a high fence, called “Guantanamo“. It was designed to be a detention unit, and according to the judgment of the Commercial Court, it was built with the funds of Austria and the European Union (EU). The verdict also states that the state border of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Croatia is a zone without the rule of law in relation to migrants.
The built detention unit has a capacity of up to 12 persons who were supposed to be detained there for up to 72 hours. The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi, announced the construction of the facility that is causing anxiety among the citizens of Bihac, and which was particularly controversial at the beginning of the year when Croatia was intensively returning migrants to BiH.
“So in this part, we need to ensure that the detention units, that is, the facilities in the Lipa reception center are under certain control,” he said during his visit to Sarajevo in November 2022, N1 reports.
Photo: Fena
E.Dz.
