According to available operational data from security agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), there are currently 82 adult citizens of BiH in Syria and Iraq, including 42 men and 40 women.
Out of this number, 28 citizens of BiH are located in the Idlib region of Syria – 10 women, 18 men, and 11 minors. Furthermore, the whereabouts of two additional BiH citizens are unknown.
Dire situation
In the refugee camps Al-Hol and Roj and detention facilities in northeastern Syria, there are 52 BiH citizens – 22 men and 30 women – along with 66 of their children (a total of 118 people).
Selma Sultanovic is one of the women currently in the Roj camp. Her uncle, Dzemail Becirovic, said that he recently spoke with Selma’s mother, Tifa Sultanovic, who lives in Switzerland.
“She’s trying to send her help, but lately, that help hasn’t been getting through. The assistance has stopped. She tried several times to send money from Switzerland, but the banks rejected the transactions, so my niece is in a very difficult situation. She lives there in the Roj camp with her three- or four-year-old daughter. Her husband has been separated from her from the very beginning and is in a different camp,” Becirovic explained.
The situation is uncertain, he added, raising the question of whether Selma will be able to get out. He added that establishing communication with Selma is also very challenging.
“For a while, she had contact with her mother through Skype, and they communicated. Lately, that contact has been lost. About a month ago, there was some hope that she might get out of the camp. A huge sum of money was demanded; the funds were raised, but it all fell through in the end. Those who had guaranteed to get her out and take her to Turkey had made all the arrangements, but when it came time to execute the plan, it turned out to be a scam. They wanted the money upfront, but the family couldn’t agree to pay without any guarantee she’d leave the camp,” said Becirovic.
When asked who these people promising to “rescue” her were, Becirovic replied:
“I don’t know the details. My sister told me over the phone that it was linked to someone in Russia, some organization claiming to have contacts there, but it turned out to be a complete scam.”
The family has been sending help for years, but they believe most of it never reaches Selma.
“The money they send is never addressed to her directly; instead, it goes through third parties, and those third parties give her part of the money. She later confirms receiving it, but who knows how much she actually gets.”
Becirovic also spoke about his interactions with relevant institutions in BiH. Officials had asked him for guarantees that if Selma returned to BiH, someone would take responsibility for her.
“I provided guarantees as a family member that she would stay with me here in Sarajevo, in Ilidza. They inspected my living conditions because I said she couldn’t return to the place she was expelled from. She was just a child when she fled the Liplje camp near Zvornik with her parents and went to Tuzla, then later to Pakistan. She escaped one camp only to end up in another in Syria. Officials from our security services carried out all the necessary checks, including with the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Zvornik. They even retrieved her birth records to examine her family background. They visited her old home, from which she was expelled, to assess whether it was suitable for her return. We all agreed that the best option would be for her to come back to me until conditions are met for her to return to Switzerland, where her mother, father, and two sisters live,” said Becirovic.
However, she has not returned, just like dozens of other women and children. Families have lost hope, but a glimmer of it has re-emerged as the situation in Syria begins to change.
In a conversation with Alema Dolamic, the first woman to publicly speak about the plight of women and children in Syrian and Iraqi camps, we learned that during a call with her sister – who is also in the Roj camp – she heard that everyone in the camp has packed their belongings, hoping the time will come when someone will let them leave, N1 writes.
Photo: N1
