Nahe der Stadt Bihac in Bosnien-Herzegowina haben die bosnischen Autoritäten ein neues Flüchtlingslager eingerichtet. Sie reagieren damit auf die Überfüllung des großen Bira-Lagers in Bihac. Dort leben circa 700 Personen im Lager selbst, weitere harren außerhalb der Abzäunungen in Zelten aus. Die sanitären und Hygiene-Bedingungen seien unzureichend, dünne Planen würden nicht vor Sonne und Regen schützen. Weil weiterhin mehr als 5.000 Menschen in der Region auf dem Weg in die Europäische Union seien und pro Tag zwischen 100 und 150 Ankommende zu verzeichnen seien, hat die Internationale Organisation für Migration (IOM), die die meisten der Lager betreibt, ein weiteres Lager in Vucjak eröffnet.
Die Zustände im neuen IOM-Lager sind noch schlechter als im Bira-Lager. Es gibt nur zwei Wassertanks und einen Generator, der Zugang zu Toiletten, Duschen und medizinischer Versorgung, aber auch zu Nahrungsmitteln fehlt und Krankheiten grassieren.

Regional authorities have decided to build a new camp for displaced people in Vucjak, a former garbage dump about 8 kilometers (5 miles) outside of Bihac. There is no infrastructure, no running water, no electricity; the environment is toxic. The plan is to house 400 displaced people there initially. […]

„We’ve been on the road for a year and a half,“ one told DW. Hoping to go to Italy, the group trekked to Bosnia-Herzegovina via Iran, Turkey, Greece, North Macedonia and Serbia, and, everywhere they went, they had water, food and a roof over their heads. „This is the worst so far,“ one said. „We have to sleep out in the open air, and they bring water in tanks — like for cattle.“

Deutsche Welle│22.06.2019

Detaillierte Beschreibungen des seit circa einer Woche geöffneten Lagers in Vucjak veröffentlicht die NGO Border Violence Monitoring.

For a week now, local authorities have continued the transfer of people on the move staying in Bihać, BiH to the new jungle-camp located in Vučjak. For a week now, people are removed from the town, while walking in the street or sleeping in their beds, by police patrol around the city. For a week now, groups are spared if they don’t walk together, making them even more vulnerable. For a week now, people staying in town are afraid to walk in the street, afraid of being taken by the police, afraid of being mistreated, afraid of being beaten. For a week now, this fear has been palpable; a collective feeling, just like the fatigue, just like the distress, just like the pain. For a week now, people are left in the middle of nowhere; amongst wilderness, amongst snakes, amongst mines. For a week now, people feel that they are treated as animals, as if they were no longer considered as human beings, but rather a pest which needs to be controlled.

This “camp”, if we can call it so, has not improved in its short existence. Two water tanks have been added. A power generator has been on service a few hours a day, allowing the people forced to inhabit this place the chance to charge their phones for 20 minutes each. Several hours of lighting are provided at night. Who can call this a success?

For a week now, medical care has been limited, if not absent, on a daily basis. For a week now, people lack access toilets and showers. For a week now, people have suffered under skin diseases linked to the lack of hygiene and the living conditions. For a week now, people have food provided twice a day; their meals composed of a yogurt, two pieces of bread, two pieces of butter, and a can of fish or vegetables. For a week now, people do not don’t know what will happen to them, since there is limited information provided, no registration for anything.

Last week authorities from the Una-Sana Canton in Bosnia-Herzegovina opened a camp to transfer the people on the move living outside of the over-capacity camp facilities in Bihać. They moved them to a field eight kilometers away which lacks any of the basic infrastructure needed to ensure the well-being of vulnerable people. For eight days, law-enforcement teams have patrolled the city, hunting people on the move to bring them to this place. On the first day, 282 people were transferred to this field where, at the time, there only four tents were raised and three water tanks were in place to provide drinking water. The people who were brought there did not receive food, nor medical care, despite many of them receiving injured from police during the raids earlier in the day. The next day food was provided once and then, in the following days, twice, in limited quantity. Who can call this progress?

The Red Cross is the only organization currently providing services, with limited abilities.

This treatment is degrading towards people on the move and moreover, the use of force by the authorities to relocate people to this place has been disproportionate.

Border Violence Monitoring│23.06.2019

Dass so viele Menschen in das neue Lager gebracht wurden, hängt auch damit zusammen, dass bosnische Autoritäten eine Ausgangssperre für Migrant*innen und Geflüchtete verhängt haben. Werden Migrant*innen und Geflüchtete zwischen 22 und 6 Uhr auf der Straße aufgegriffen, werden sie von der Polizei in das Bira-Lager zurückgebracht oder eben ins neue Lager nach Vucjak deportiert. Tahir aus Pakistan berichtet “We can’t buy anything to eat. We are not allowed to leave the camp, as if this were a prison — but we don’t want to be prisoners. […] The situation is impossible.“ (Deutsche Welle | 22.06.2019)

Immer wieder werden Migrant*innen bei dem Versuch, die Grenze nach Kroatien zu überqueren, von der Polizei aufgegriffen und in illegalen Push-Backs zurück nach Bosnien gebracht, wo sie dann in solchen Lagern festsitzen. Migrant*innen und NGOs dokumentieren körperliche Gewalt und die Zerstörung von Smartphones bei Festnahmen durch die Polizei.

Balkanroute: Neues Lager in Bosnien ohne ausreichende Versorgung