The discovery of the affair surrounding the construction of a prison unit inside the Lipa migrant camp, close to Bihać, had a great impact there, as well as among the public of BiH and the entire region.
The founder of the NGO “SOS Balkanroute” Austria, Petar Rosandić, is the most deserving of this, very important information, who was very persistent in his public appearances, in order to draw attention to the serious violation of human rights, because in Camp Lipa, in addition to migrants, there are also refugees and minors.
Rosandić then revealed the fact that the object in question was subsidized by the Austrian government with 1.1 million euros. For this humane but also extremely brave act, Rosandić was recently presented with the prestigious Ferdinand-Berger Award, named after the Austrian anti-fascist fighter and policeman who, during the Nazi regime, became an inmate in the Dachau concentration camp in Vienna’s City Hall.
Rosandić was nominated for the prize with a cash fund of 3,000 euros by the Documentary Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW), and Peter Hacker, the city’s minister for health, social work and refugees, had the honor of presenting it on behalf of the Viennese authorities.
“Human rights cannot be ignored. They are there, and Rosandić defends them with his involvement and reminds us of them and the situation of refugees who find themselves in the external borders of the European Union,” said Hacker.
The awarding of the award was preceded by a lawsuit against Rosandić by the International Center for Migration Policy (ICMPD), also based in Vienna, which, as the Commercial Court in Vienna has since confirmed, illegally built the building, without a building permit and legal basis for retention of migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During his address in the historic “Wappensaal” of Vienna’s City Hall, Rosandić thanked Bosnian-Herzegovinian and Austrian civil society, without which the “Austrian Guantanamo”, as he called the controversial prison, would be a reality today.
For stopping the use of the prison unit, he thanked the Minister for Human Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sevlid Hurtić, who informed the Bihac and cantonal authorities and the Austrian Minister of Justice, Alma Zadić, about the disputed facility.
“In the Balkans, things look different than the architects of the European fortress imagine, who would imprison migrants without a legal basis. A bright example of the attitude towards migrants is Archbishop Mate Uzinić, who operated a transit point in Rijeka, and in Bihać there are many ordinary citizens, who heartily they help people in need. Humanity has not yet died there,” said Rosandić.
The former journalist, long-time activist and rapper warned that the current policy of the European Union, and especially of Austria in terms of migration policy, is in error.
This, as he states, is proven by the current judgments of the European Court of Human Rights against Italy due to the illegal imprisonment of Tunisians, as well as the stopping of Great Britain’s “dirty deal” with Rwanda.
“The court in Berlin clearly said that this is also a zone without the rule of law, and the prosecutor failed to present either a building permit or a legal basis. The scandal is that Goliath, financed by taxpayers’ money, thought he could do something like that in BiH , and then through court processes, to silence and defeat civil society. We will never remain silent about what is happening at the external borders,” concluded Rosandić, Klix.ba reports.
