While we witness the exodus of citizens from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) daily, internal migrations are taking place in silence. Villages disappear in which rebuilt houses that were destroyed during the war stay while people buy new ones, somewhere closer to the city. The reporters visited the village of Hamamdzici in the Travnik municipality, where, according to the last population census, there were more than 500 residents, and today this place is disappearing.
Emin Mrkonja is the only student in this regional school, where he is welcomed by a teacher who drives from Travnik for almost an hour every day to be not only a teacher but also a friend of Emin.
“Three or four years ago, the class at this place had 14 students. This year, only one student was enrolled, ” told teacher Lutvija Kehonjic-Bahtic.
In the village, where the school worked in two shifts before the war, and after the war most of the exiled population returned, most houses are locked now, and locals continue their life in Turbet, about twenty kilometers away, where they start over, told Ermina Djelilbasic who is making the final preparations for departure.
Among the reasons for now permanently leaving the village, the second in the last thirty years, they most often point out the bad road that was destroyed by roundwood trucks.
“The trend of moving away is especially present and obvious in smaller places. People are leaving for a better job. Due to the need for transportation, it is very difficult during winter, “explained the teacher.
Mirsad Djelilbasic is a former resident – mostly because of work and travel. As he said the ticket is 3.5 BAM in one direction.
The elderly are resisting the permanent departure and abandonment of houses in which they own everything and the land that feeds them, claiming that life here is much better andeasier than in cities. But of course, you have to work, statedeighty-three-year-old Rahima Mrkonja, who, along with three cows, manages to cultivate the garden, which will provide her with winter preserves, despite the drought.
As winter approaches, there are more and more houses whose doors will be locked until spring, and they say that in a few years, this will remain just a wasteland.
