Residents of Bihac do not allow Transfer of Migrants to Reception Camp near the City Centre

The situation in Bihac regarding the announced transfer of migrants from the Lipa migrant camp, located in the vicinity of Bihac, to the recently closed Bira reception center, which is located in the city center, is becoming more complicated by the hour.

After the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted instructions for reopening the Bira center until the completion of construction works in the confirmed reception camp Lipa, the residents of Bihac prevented three vehicles of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) from entering the closed center.

On that occasion, the citizens announced that they would guard as much as necessary, but they would not allow the return of migrants to the city center, Klix.ba writes.

Information from the field says that the fire in the Lipa camp, which broke out yesterday, is most likely the work of the migrants themselves who set up the tents, obviously dissatisfied with the unfavorable situation.

As he said, the entrance to the Bureau has been blocked for 80 days and will remain as long as necessary, until the authorities in the country realize that the city of Bihac and Una-Sana Canton (USK) cannot bear the weight of the migrant crisis in our country.

“We have set up night guards so as not to try to transfer migrants to the Bureau by some trick. We do not want so many of them in the city. It is not a problem for Bihac to bear part of the burden of the migrant crisis, but only together with other cities in BiH. For the first time, we have a situation in the USC that the government has stood by the citizens, because this is a matter of security for all of us.For us curfew due to the coronavirus pandemic is nothing new, because we have limited freedom of movement at night for years due to the fear of migrants “.

The future of 1,350 migrants in the Lipa camp and close to two hundred of them around the camp is uncertain, and all of them will most likely go to the forests or seek refuge from the winter in the surrounding settlements, given that they are not provided with adequate accommodation.