Heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures have struck the Balkans. Hundreds of migrants in a makeshift camp in Bosnia are struggling with the weather conditions which, according to some NGO experts, could result in migrant deaths unless they are resettled soon.
A senior human rights envoy who visited the camp on Tuesday demanded its immediate closure, although a Bosnian government minister said it could take up to a month to move the refugees to a more secure location.
“First of all, as a Bosnian, I’m profoundly shaken and I think this is a disgrace for Bosnia and Herzegovina. These conditions are not fit for human beings, this is shameful. I cannot believe something like this has been put up in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I’m talking about our history, about everything we went through, all who were refugees. This camp must be closed today”- says Dunja Mijatovic, Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe.
Many of the migrants also complain about not being given better accommodation.
“If they really don’t want refugees to come to their countries, they should go to Turkey-Greece border. When refugees come to Turkey and they deport them, we won’t come here. But now, what we had, we spent all of our money, all of our things. We reached here, near to Europe (European Union). Now they, Croatia and Slovenia, closed their borders, when we go there, they extract us, they hit us” says Rezwenullah Nyazi,24, migrant from Afghanistan.
Human rights groups have accused Croatian police of using violence to push the migrants back over the border into Bosnia, a charge denied by Croatian authorities.