A fast-moving fire has devastated a migrant camp in Bosnia that has been strongly criticized by rights groups as inadequate for lack of resources.
The fire broke out in the Lipa camp, close to the border with Croatia, on the same day that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) declared the actual closure of the facility, saying that the Bosnian authorities were calling for basic services had been ignored.
Thick black smoke could be seen as residents, mainly from the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, fled in panic. A UN official said the fire was alleged to have been caused by migrants unhappy with the camp’s temporary closure.
“As far as we now know, a group of former residents set fire to three tents and containers after most of the migrants left the camp,” said Peter Van der Auweraert of the IOM. He said to his knowledge that there were no casualties.
The IOM has urged the Bosnian authorities to winterize the camp and provide an alternative shelter while the work is being carried out.
Hundreds of migrants, including children, are now without shelter as temperatures in Bosnia are expected to drop to -4 ° C.
Bosnia has become a bottleneck for thousands of migrants hoping to reach the EU. Most are concentrated in the country’s northwestern Bosanska Krajina region, while other regions in the ethnically divided nation refuse to accept them. From there, they try to cross the Croatian border into the EU and face setbacks.
In March, at the start of the coronavirus outbreak, the Bosnian authorities ordered the transfer of thousands of migrants to the remote temporary camp.
A few weeks ago, when the temperature dropped to -6C, more than 1,400 people still lived in the camp. Shower and toilet facilities were frozen and people had to use the surrounding woods to relieve themselves.
The EU has warned Bosnia that thousands of migrants will face a freezing winter without shelter, and has urged the country’s political authorities to overcome their differences and take action.
But others believe that behind the Lipa incident there is a deep political divide between the UN and the EU, and the Bosnian authorities.
Attempts to reopen another camp, Bira, in the Bihać region met opposition after it was closed by authorities of the Una-Sana canton in late September.
“What is happening in Bihać is a political crisis that has been going on for almost two years,” said Paola Lucchesi, a former journalist from Bihać and president of the NGO Centar za Odrzivi Razvoj “Una”.
“In the past two months, a deadlock between the cantonal and municipal authorities and the IOM, acting as an operational partner for the EU Commission, has escalated to the point of a full-blown constitutional crisis in the country,” she added.