Since 2018 when the former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced the closure of the so called „Balkanroute“, Bosnia & Herzegowina has been facing a deep crisis.
The events of recent years show that refugees have become the pawns and victims of an inhumane and dehumanising asylum policy. On 23 December 2020, the humanitarian crisis on the so-called Balkan route culminated in the burning of the Lipa refugee camp.
The camp is located next to a minefield in a forest landscape, completely isolated from any civilisation. After the fire, the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Ministry of Security attempted to move the refugees from Lipa to a barracks in Bradina in the Herzegovina-Neretva canton, but this was cancelled following protests by the local population. Around 900 refugees remained on the site of the former Lipa camp without access to basic human supplies.
On 8 January 2021, the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina began setting up tents at a new location next to the former Lipa camp. At the end of 2020, more than 1,700 refugees were homeless in the Una-Sana canton. As all internationally responsible and EU-funded organisations such as the IOM (International Organisation for Migration) had withdrawn, the local Red Cross - supported by SOS Balkanroute - stepped in and ensured the survival of the people.
At the beginning of 2022, the construction of a prison on the police-sealed site in Lipa began without the local and cantonal government being informed. The construction was carried out by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) under the leadership of former Austrian Vice Chancellor Michael Spindelegger (ÖVP) in Vienna, without any approval or legal basis.
SOS Balkanroute uncovered the project and fought with the mayor of Bihać, the Bosnian human rights minister and the cantonal prime minister against the opening. Petar Rosandić, chairman of SOS Balkanroute, was honoured with the Ferdinand Berger Prize of the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW) for his efforts. The prison is still not in operation today and 70,000 people were saved from another human rights violation.
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