European Union (EU) announced on Thursday it would allocate two more million Euro of aid to Bosnia and Herzegovina to tackle the migrant crisis, which is reaching a critical point these days with thousands of foreign nationals who are trying to reach the western countries being stuck in Bosnian westernmost part.
“With winter approaching and thousands of migrants and refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina living outside of adequate facilities, the European Commission has today announced an additional €2 million in humanitarian aid. This brings EU humanitarian aid in the country to €5.8 million since 2018,” said the Commission.
The news comes days after the local authorities in the western Una-Sana Canton (USK) said they would no longer provide water and other utility services for the ‘Vucjak’ camp but that they would send every migrant walking in public areas to the camp, a step which triggered outrage among the foreigners.
They said they were treated like animals and beaten by police.
“We are not criminals, we have not killed anyone, we are just refugees because we have problems in our country,” Abas, a migrant from Pakistan told N1.
But, the police record clashes among the migrants on a daily basis, which causes discomfort among the local population.
The city authorities in Bihac, the USK administrative centre, urge the state to help. To make the pressure, they threatened with dismantling a temporary shelter in the city centre.
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The situation must be brought to absurd in order for everyone to start doing their job, said Bihac Mayor Suhret Fazlic.
But, the state authorities blame it on the country's complex system.
The crisis the waves of migrants have caused in Bosnia is not as bad as the country’s dysfunctional system is making it, as others have successfully coped with much larger numbers of people passing through, Bosnia's Security Minister Dragan Mektic told journalists on Wednesday.
Both the migrants and citizens of Bihac and nearby towns are in a no-way-out situation, while the lack of coordination among the Bosnia's state bodies makes it impossible to manage the migrant crisis that is reaching the tipping point.
