About half of the migrants who, until recently, were in the Vuciak camp near the Croatian border, have already arrived at Blazhuja barracks in the Sarajevo region.
Yesterday at noon, the resettlement of migrants from the Bosnian camp Vuciak near the town of Bihac began. According to the Red Cross, there have recently been more than 600 people in the camp.
According to Al Jazeera Balkans, about 300 migrants have already arrived at Blazhuja barracks near Sarajevo.
Half of the migrants were taken to another refuge
A total of 15 buses left migrant camp in Bihac yesterday. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the second half of migrants should be placed in the small town of Ushivak near Sarajevo. Later, they, too, should remain in the barracks of Blazhuya. Currently, repairs are still underway there.
According to Peter van der Auweraert, head of the IOM mission in Bosnia, it will take three to four weeks to complete the repair work.
According to the internet portal klix.ba, about 100 police officers were sent to carry out the “move”. Some of the migrants opposed resettlement in the interior of the country and would prefer to stay in the region near the border with Croatia. From there it’s easier to get to one of the EU states.
Migrants want to wait out the winter in the barracks. Most of the migrants are people from Pakistan who wanted to go to Italy. However, they are ready to wait out the winter in the barracks, and then set off in the spring towards the EU. Over the past few days and weeks, the makeshift camp has been criticized several times. With the onset of winter, living conditions in the camp, in which there is no electricity and water, have deteriorated significantly. The resettlement of migrants should be completed by Thursday. After that, the Vuciak camp will be closed until the weekend.
In total over the past six months, about 15,000 migrants have been registered, Radio Free Europe reports. Since 2018, nearly 50,000 illegal migrants have entered Bosnia to enter the EU through Croatia and Slovenia. According to local authorities and international organizations, 7,000 of them remained in the country.