The border of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is under migratory pressure again. Since the beginning of the year, around 4,500 thousand migrants have been prevented from crossing illegally, and in the same period, five times as many have entered BiH. This is also visible in the Una-Sana Canton (USC), which for years has borne the brunt of the migrant crisis the most.
Migrants, before they go to the so-called ”game”, most often stay in the Temporary Reception Center in Lipa near Bihac, which today is a refuge for more than a thousand of them. They don’t complain about the conditions. After unpleasant scenes and numerous problems in the past period, today they say they have everything, but remind all that it is only a stopover. Trying to cross the border, many of them return with bruises, scratches, damaged mobile phones. In the current climate where migration is interpreted as a threat, action against international refugee laws and violence have become the job description for most of Europe’s border guards.
“Croatian policemen are to blame for this. I’m not the only one. They also hit others. These wounds you see on my hand are wounds from the dogs they let loose on us,” says a migrant from Afghanistan while showing the results of the meeting with, as he claims, the police in the neighborhood.
For fear of new consequences, they want to remain anonymous.
“When they caught us, they put us in a room and started beating us as if we were animals. Then they searched us and took our things,” adds a migrant from Morocco who unsuccessfully tried to set foot on the soil of the European Union (EU) three times.
“The largest number of illegal crossings of migrants was detected outside the area of border crossings, i.e. in the border zone, and in the first six months, 33 criminal offenses of people smuggling and organizing a group or association to commit the criminal offense of migrant smuggling were recorded,” says Franka Vican Boskovic, spokeswoman of the BiH Border Police.
While Minister of Security Nenad Nesic claims that there is no crisis at the moment and that the situation is stable, others warn.
“Currently, we have around 2,700 migrants registered in the camps. It is characteristic that they stay in BiH for a short time and use it as a transit area. It is definite that the crisis is not behind us and that in the coming period, great attention should be paid to this issue. What is very important, given that I worked there, is that the Border Police fill their ranks as soon as possible and I am convinced that they will reduce everything by 50 percent”, believes Zarko Laketa, director of the Service for Affairs with Foreigners.
