Worthy Christian News > World News > Bosnian Army Offering Tents For Desperate Refugees 

Bosnian Army Offering Tents For Desperate Refugees 

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) –
There was a glimmer of hope Saturday for some 1,000 freezing people stuck in a burned-out refugee camp in Bosnia after the army began placing tents to fend freezing winter weather.

The migrants fleeing war, persecution, and poverty were hoping for shelter amid the biting Balkan winter. Bosnian authorities pledged this week to move these people from the Lipa camp, near Croatia, which has no facilities

But a plan to move them to other locations, such as a former army compound in central Bosnia, failed after residents rallied against the arrival of refugees. Desperate people, many from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, spent 24 hours in a convoy of buses, waiting to move.

Now they are back in the Lipa refugee camp, which was destroyed more than a week ago.

“Some came here, for example, the police and [International Organization for Migration] IOM,” recalled a young man wearing a mask due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“They said: ‘You will go to Sarajevo or another camp. And after that, we went there on the buses. Every bus [was packed] with 55 people,” he explained. “After that, they said you are not going back to Sarajevo or another camp. You must go back to Lipa.”

CAMPFIRE

For the past few nights, he and others had to lit fires to warm up at the muddy campsite. And on Friday, they held a brief protest against the horrendous circumstances. Aid groups say hundreds of rejected food and held up banners calling for international help.

Some 150 Bosnian soldiers have now arrived erecting tents for the refugees, run by the International Organization for Migration after international pressure.

Bosnia, which seeks membership of the European Union, was condemned by EU officials to abandon these people without necessary facilities such as running water or toilets.

Authorities say, however, that Bosnia has struggled with the influx of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in their countries in the Mideast, Africa, and Asia.

Migrants mostly flock to Bosnia’s northwestern corner, which borders European Union member Croatia, from where they hope to move toward a wealthier and more welcoming EU nation.

But many complained about violent pushbacks by Croatian border forces and hostility from Bosnian residents, Worthy News reported earlier. And as they face an uncertain future, frustration grows at the start of a New Year.