Caritas Europa president Michael Landau on Friday called on European countries to show greater solidarity with illegal migrants as well as with countries lying on the migration routes such as Bosnia and Herzegovina.

During his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Landau, who is also the president of Caritas Austria, toured migrant camps near Bihac in the country’s northwest and in the Sarajevo area which are a temporary home to thousands of illegal migrants trying to reach the European Union.

Caritas Bosnia and Herzegovina is actively involved in raising aid for those people, in which it is assisted by the Caritas organisations from Italy, Austria, Switzerland, the United States, Slovenia, Spain, Poland, Germany and other countries.

Landau arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina to see for himself the circumstances in which migrants lived and how relief projects were being implemented.

Landau told reporters in Sarajevo that the situation in the migrant camps was hard, particularly in Lipa outside Bihac which does not meet the necessary conditions for stay in wintertime. He called on European countries to do all they could so that the scenes he had seen in Lipa would not be repeated next winter.

Landau warned that Bosnia and Herzegovina must not be left to its own devices in confronting the migrant crisis. The country is burdened with many other problems and has limited resources, so Europe should get more involved here, he said.