A fast-moving fire destroyed a migrant camp in Bosnia that has been heavily criticized by rights groups as inadequate due to lack of resources.
The blaze broke out in the Lipa camp, near the border with Croatia, on the same day, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the facility was effectively closed, saying Bosnian authorities had ignored calls for basic services.
Thick black smoke could be seen rising as residents, mostly from the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, fled in panic. A UN official said the burning was triggered by migrants dissatisfied with the temporary closure of the camp.
“As far as we know, a group of former residents set fire to three tents and containers after most migrants left the camp,” said Peter Van der Auweraert of IOM. He said, to his knowledge, that there were no casualties.
The IOM has asked the Bosnian authorities to make the right camp for the winter and to offer an alternative shelter option during the works.
Hundreds of migrants, including children, are now left homeless as temperatures in Bosnia are expected to drop to -4C.
Bosnia has become a stalemate for thousands of migrants hoping to reach the EU. Most are concentrated in the northwestern region of Bosanska Krajina, as other regions of the ethnically divided nation refuse to accept them. From there, they are trying to cross the border into Croatia into the EU and fight the push.
Bosnian authorities have ordered the transfer of thousands of migrants to the temporary removal camp in March, at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.
A few weeks ago, when temperatures dropped to -6C, more than 1,400 people were still living in the camp. Shower and toilet facilities froze and people were forced to use the surrounding forests for relief.
The EU has warned Bosnia that thousands of migrants are facing a frozen winter without shelter and urged the country’s political authorities to give up their differences and take action.
But others believe that behind the Lipa incident there is a deep political rift between the UN and the EU and the Bosnian authorities.
Attempts to reopen another camp, Bira, in the Bihać region, came into opposition after it was closed at the end of September by Una-Sana canton authorities.
“What is happening in Bihać is a political crisis that has been developing for almost two years,” said Paola Lucchesi, a former Bihać-based journalist and president of the NGO Centar za Odrzivi Razvoj “Una”.
“In the last two months, a confrontation between cantonal and municipal authorities and the IOM, which acts as an operational partner for the EU commission, has escalated to the point of a constitutional crisis across the country,” she added.