AYS Weekend Digest 23–24/02/2019 IOM complicit in mistreatment of people on the move in Bosnia
By: Are You Syrious
Tags: Digest, Iom, Bosnia, Refugees, Moria8

FEATURE: Bosnia — IOM complicit in mistreatment of people on the move

They came to pick them up early on Saturday morning when half of the people were sleeping. All at once security and IOM - UN Migration personnel started to wake them up and randomly push and hurry them out towards the buses that were waiting in the front of the camp. They had to run and leave all their belongings, including clothes and shoes they were given previously by volunteers and locals. These possessions were not easily gotten, as in the camp people rarely get anything; not even enough food.

Velecevo (Crveni Križ Općine Ključ)

On Saturday morning about 200 people were taken from camps Bira and Miral, all against their will, and transferred to the camp Usivak near Sarajevo. Sources have told us that not enough beds and bedding were prepared for them and many slept with nothing the first night in this camp, despite facing freezing temperatures. The camp is located under a mountain, in an area where the sun hardly ever comes out. Sufficient reception conditions were not made despite previous acknowledgements from local authorities and IOM officials that current supplies were not enough to support the new arrivals.

However, the situation for those transferred and existing residents of the camps has been met with little sympathy or compassion by camp authorities. The head of IOM, speaking for the local media a week ago, announced that many of the problems faced in the camp are the fault of problematic camp residents, commenting that those who are making problems should be taken to the immigration centre in Sarajevo, which is a closed facility. This was said after a big fight broke in Bira when over 30 people were injured. Fights like this are not uncommon, often happening in both Bira and Miral camp. According to the IOM however, it is fault of a group of people, rather then the unbearable circumstances which exist in IOM run camps in Bosnia. IOM have still to comment on their failure to provide safe and adequate accommodation in their facilities, despite receiving huge amounts of funding to do so.

In Bira, over 2200 people are currently living in the camp, while in Miral there are around 900. Both camps are located in former factories, hastily improvised and without sufficient minimum living conditions. The camps are dark and dusty, with limited number of toilets and showers in both places. People have no privacy, and they often complain about the treatment they get from both security and IOM staff.

Nevertheless, people are willing to stay there while waiting for the right time to try again to cross to Croatia. If they are sent back to Sarajevo, they face a longer journey before they can cross the border, making the attempts even more difficult. Many do not have enough money to pay to go again to Bihac. Even if they do, unlawful practices by the local police in Bihac do not permit them to come back. Since October, police posted check-point in Veleceve area where buses are stopped and people taken out and left by the street, with the only help available being provided by local people. This weekend, a woman from Syria, mother of two, was among those left on the street.

Velecevo check-point — Syrian women left alone after taken from the bus Sarajevo — Bihac. (Photo by Crveni Križ Općine Ključ)

On Saturday, the evacuations came with no warning. People were taken randomly, others were threatened that next time it will be them on the bus. This random approach meant that families were separated, sick people pushed out from their beds.

While the people were forcefully taken, one young man from Afghanistan wrote this message to a friend in Bihac:

“they are behaving like we are animals. I am really scared. This is first time I am so scared in my life.”

Some others tried to run and hide, some were hiding the entire weekend and did not know what was happening.

Over the last couple of weeks the level of hate speech has increased in local media, while some people are becoming openly hostile towards refugees and migrants. Yet solidarity is still strong, and many locals are actively involved in establishing a strong network and providing help.

Many people are very critical of the role IOM is playing, and their approach in helping Bosnian authorities deal with people on the move. Most criticism is focused on the lack of transparency in their work, and the conditions they created in camps. So far, most of the money donated for people on the move in Bosnia is distributed by the IOM, while the state has a limited role. Publicly, IOM claims that the state should take all the responsibility, though how this would happen when IOM holds all the funds is unclear. The UNHCR, the second biggest international organization who received donor money in Bosnia, remains quiet about the situation in the country, failing to comment even when it comes to huge human rights violations people on the move face. Whilst these organisations remain silent, the situation continues to deteriorate and it is becoming increasingly difficult for those trapped within the country’s borders. International organizations are doing little, indeed nothing, to silence this hostile atmosphere or to be more critical toward the local governments. All the while refugees and migrants are stripped of all their most basic rights, and people who are helping them are increasingly portrayed as enemies.

The government in Bihac claims that existing capacities in this area are full and they are demanding that people are distributed in other cities, too. However, due to the close proximity of the border everybody wants to be in the Bihac area. It remains hard to say if there is capacity to accept all the people.

The transfer of people from Bihac and Kladusa was done together with IOM and local governments. The process of these transfers was humiliating for many people, and, once again, actively created victims. While the IOM and government in Bosnia are shifting the guilt from one to another, it has to be said that the way humans are being treated in Bosnia at the moment, including many people who need special protection, is something both parties should be ashamed off. Likewise, the UN agencies who remain silent, refusing to speak out about these human rights violations should recognise that by doing so they become complicit in the ongoing violence shown toward vulnerable populations on the move.