The Balkan route: when everyone loses

By Paola Matova

It was not unexpected that winter would arrive in the refugee camps again this year, and yet the winter is particularly hard for migrants on the Balkan Route. Especially, since the route diverged from Hungary to the border between Bosnia and Croatia in 2018. The number of people migrating has increased considerably: at the end of 2018, the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina registered the arrival of 23,848 people, compared to 1,116 in 2017. In 2020, the number of people passing through the country rose to about 70,000. All this despite the controversial 2016 agreement between the EU and Turkey which aimed to close the Balkan route.

The situation became critical, especially following the fire at the overcrowded refugee camp in Lipa, Bosnia, on the 23rd of December 2020. Lipa was an emergency camp built to cope with the Covid emergency, but in reality, the authorities in Bihac (Bosnia) no longer wanted camps to be inside the city. This demonstrates that local municipalities take autonomous decisions, without the Bosnian government imposing constraints or appealing to a European network to seek a solution to the migration crisis.

In those conditions, the Lipa camp was not recognised to be in line with the international standards for the reception of refugees by the International Organization for Migration – the UN agency that deals with migrants – because it is located in the woods 30km away from the first city, without electricity or water. Structural problems, therefore, remain in the Balkan context, where for three years no reception centres for migrants have been built.

In response, the current Bosnian administration believes that the management of migrants is a European responsibility, considering that almost none of them intend to remain in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On the other hand, Europe should be evaluating its own responsibilities, especially those linked to the policies of push-backs, documented in all the countries of the Balkan route, from Greece to Croatia. According to the Danish Refugee Council, from the end of 2019 to October 2020 at least 20,000 people were rejected from Croatia to Bosnia. Violent rejections, torture and confiscation of personal property. These are not occasional incidents but represent a structural phenomenon of violation of international law.

Rejections are coercive practices implemented by public authorities against foreigners who attempt to enter the territory of a state without first obtaining permission. In other cases, these practices involve the repatriation of individuals or groups who have already entered the country to another state (usually the nearest country). The expulsion of a group of persons, in the absence of legal procedures and without examination of each individual case, is defined as “collective expulsion” and is prohibited by international law.

Yet, the countries of the Balkan Route do not seem to be the only ones to perpetuate this practice. In fact, there are several testimonies of people who arrived in Trieste (Italy) to be rejected and sent back to Bosnia, through the so-called “mechanism of rejection chain”.

According to a survey conducted by Altreconomia, in recent years Italy’s rejection of migrants from the Balkans has doubled. Although the Italian Minister of the Interior Lamorgese, speaks of collaboration between the Italian and Slovenian authorities, the NGOs monitoring constantly at the front line, denounce episodes of rejection of persons entitled to asylum at the border. In 2020, according to data provided by the Pravno-informacijski centre nevladnih orgamizacij (PIC) of Ljubljana – Slovenia readmitted to Croatia 9,950 people of which 1,116 received from Italy. This scenario is totally incompatible with the right of asylum, as enshrined in the Geneva Convention and in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the set of rules governing the European Asylum System.

Another irreversible problem which is given little attention is the serious psychological condition of people who have been travelling for years and often find themselves stuck in the uncertainty of their near destiny, in Lipa or in one of the many camps scattered along the Route. The psycho-social support of these people remains one of the last topics discussed.

The European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, asked Frontex – the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, to clarify the allegations of involvement in the push-backs of migrants. Frontex is currently being investigated by the EU Anti-fraud Office for allegations of harassment, misconduct and illegal operations to prevent migrants from reaching the EU borders. The reason arethe increasing number of testimonies denouncing illegal push-backs. Among these, a report by the German newspaper der Spiegel International reveals stories of women and men who have been rejected with the complicity of Frontex.

It should be borne in mind that there are very few legal access routes for foreigners in the EU and at the moment there is no guarantee of access for asylum seekers. The EU has a contradictory approach: between 2018-2020 it spent around 89 million euro on the reception system in Bosnia. On the other hand, it expects the state of arrival to take care of asylum seekers arriving on their territory, practically denying migrants the right to seek international protection.

Neither Frontex nor the European Commission have in recent months taken measures against the abuse and violence suffered by asylum seekers on the border between Croatia and Bosnia.

Is this the Europe we want?