Who is building prisons for foreigners on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)? Where did they get the right to build even without a building permit, and which laws would be applied in that illegal facility, are questions that were also discussed by the Commercial Court in Vienna. They decided that the international organization International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) illegally built a detention unit within the Lipa camp in Bihac. That detention center was not put into operation.
Austrian Guantanamo, but not in Austria, but in BiH, in the Lipa camp near Bihac. A facility surrounded by a high wall intended for the detention of migrants who commit criminal acts.
“Now they called it the Austrian Guantanamo, because it is an Austrian organization, the former chancellor financed it. Someone approved it, but the building permit was not issued in Bihac. The judge quoted my statement that it was planned to house all persons who commit criminal acts, migrants, to return to BiH,” said Sevlid Hurtic, Minister for Human Rights and Refugees.
But in BiH, there is already an immigration center in Istocno Sarajevo where those who commit criminal acts go. So the question is, why would someone build a center where they would imprison migrants, and under what law in BiH would detainees be kept?
“It cannot be like the Immigration Center because our Immigration Center is regulated in accordance with the Act on the Service for Foreigner’s Affairs. Authorizations apply. It can be a facility for temporary detention, and when it comes to the Service and our powers, we can temporarily detain a migrant for up to 6 hours,” Zarko Laketa explained, director of the Service for Foreigner’s Affairs of BiH.
Asked whether such a facility is needed in BiH, Laketa says:
“I don’t think it’s necessary, we have our facility in Istocno Sarajevo. We have our employees there, it’s a facility that is under surveillance 24/7.”
This case reached the Court in Vienna after ICMPD sued the organization SOS Balkanroute because it damaged the ICMPD’s reputation by spreading stories about the illegal construction of a detention center. The decision to sue SOS Balkanroute backfired on ICMPD.
“When a person thinks of the European Commission, the European Union (EU), he thinks of some high standards, and then he realizes that someone was waving money around and didn’t even ask for a building permit. He didn’t ask the local people, he didn’t agree with the cantonal prime minister, or anyone else,” said Petar Rosandic, president of SOS Balkanroute.
The ICMPD said that in the future they will increase transparency and better publicize their activities. They are still analyzing the verdict.
“We have received the written verdict. We are currently analyzing it and considering how we will proceed. Regardless, I want to underline that all our activities in connection with the Lipa migrant camp have been finished,” Bernhard Schragl, ICMPD spokesman.
And in the verdict, the posts on social media of Kid Pex, i.e. the activist Petar Rosandic, are visible, in which the organization that built the Detention Center and the party of the former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz – the Austrian People’s Party – are connected, N1 reports.
