- Title: Bosnian local authorities to cut support for migrant camp
- Date: 21st October 2019
- Summary: VARIOUS OF MEN SITTING ON GROUND AND EATING FROM CANS VARIOUS OF MEN QUEUEING OUTSIDE TENT MEN STANDING AND WALKING IN CAMP, YELLOW WATER TANK ATOP BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) 20-YEAR-OLD MIGRANT FROM AFGHANISTAN, RAES AHMAJAI, SAYING: "Here the situation is too bad and every person has the same story like me. We are living here, you will see the tents, there is no bed and no double bed, you know and we're living on the ground. So, the situation is too bad and when we're going on the game (attempt to sneak across the border) to Croatia, moving to Europe, so when they are catching us and sending us back here. And when they are catching us, they are beating us very hard and they don't think we are humans, they are beating us like animals." MEN WALKING IN CAMP VARIOUS OF MIGRANT WALKING WITH WATER BOTTLES YELLOW CISTERN WITH TEXT READING (English): "WATER IS NOT FOR DRINK" (SOUNDBITE) (English) 22-YEAR-OLD MIGRANT FROM AFGHANISTAN, SAJID KHAN, SAYING: "We have many problems in Bosnia. We don't have water and no food, and no medical. When we go across the border, to Croatia, they will beat us and take everything. Bags, shoes, food." MOBILE PHONES CHARGING GENERATOR WORKING / MEN CHARGING MOBILE PHONES VARIOUS OF MAN USING SHOVELS TO DISPOSE OF REFUSE INTO BIN (SOUNDBITE) (English) 18-YEAR-OLD MIGRANT FROM AFGHANISTAN, ZAHED, SAYING: "Two times I tried to go to Croatia. I fell and they catch us, they take everything from us. Now we are trying to find, to get money from somewhere and try to buy a blanket, food everything for us. You see, there is no water." VARIOUS OF MAN RECEIVING HAIRCUT BIHAC, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (OCTOBER 21, 2019) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Bosnian) MAYOR OF BIHAC, SUHRET FAZLIC, SAYING: "I don't want us to close the centres (camps), but migrants are coming here to Bihac from the entire country, from all directions, the Serb Republic, from Croatia and want to cross to Croatia. First, we, the local community, are the only ones to carry this burden. So, firstly, we cannot continue spending taxpayers' money on them because we don't have it. Second, unless there is no government strategy, we will also ask to close this centre, which is also 'wild' (informal), in the former refrigerator factory Bira, and that those in charge resolve the problem." CAMP VUCJAK NEAR BIHAC, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (OCTOBER 21, 2019) (REUTERS) MEN INSIDE TENT, MAN FRYING FLATBREAD FLATBREAD BEING FRIED MEN WALKING IN CAMP
- Embargoed: 4th November 2019 15:10
- Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina Bihac Vucjak migrant camp humanitarian crisis red cross refugees
- Location: VUCJAK AND BIHAC, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
- City: VUCJAK AND BIHAC, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
- Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA003B21IREH
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Struggling with a rise in migrant arrivals, local Bosnian authorities in Bihac, near the Croatian border, said on Monday (October 21) they cannot continue spending money on the migrant camp located on the outskirts of the city.
Bihac's Mayor Suhret Fazlic said the cash-strapped town would have to stop providing food and water to migrants at Vucjak camp, where over 1,000 migrants have been steered to, to force national authorities in Sarajevo to tackle the problem.
"I don't want us to close the camps, but migrants are coming here to Bihac from the entire country, from all directions, the Serb Republic, from Croatia and want to cross to Croatia," Fazlic said.
The Vucjak camp, about eight km (five miles) from the border with Croatia, lacks running water and electricity and was built over a former landfill where land mines remain as a legacy of the 1990s wars triggered by the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
Over 40,000 migrants have entered Bosnia since 2018, of whom around 7,300 have settled in the northwest Bihac area, hoping to cross into nearby Croatia and go on to the affluent north and west of the EU.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the International Organization for Migration both criticized the conditions in the camp and urged Bosnia to close it and relocate the population to more appropriate facilities.
In July the EU pledged 14 million euros ($15.56 million) in aid for new shelters but the scheme has been held up by bickering among rival ethnic parties and anti-migrant rhetoric.
(Production: Suzana Sabljic, Dominik Starosz) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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