Disenfranchised and humiliated. Migrants at the border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina

MEPs Bettina Vollath, S&D and Dietmar Köster, S&D in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Brussels

The situation for refugees on the "Balkan route" and in Bosnia-Herzegovina has long been hopeless. Despite so-called border security measures, however, people are making it to Croatia. Most of them pay a high price for crossing the border: Some Croatian police officers abuse and rob them and illegally push them back to Bosnia. They are denied the right to an asylum application to which they are entitled. In the meantime, around 7,000 people are stranded the city of Bihac and the surrounding area. In June this year, the Bosnian authorities escalated the situation in Bihac and forced around 800 men to the former landfill Vučjak ten kilometres outside the city, where they live in unspeakable conditions. According to the UN country team on site, the conditions in Vučjak pose "significant health and safety risks" to the people there.
The discussion will examine the conditions in the camp Vučjak as well as the strategies of the EU with regard to its external borders and the illegal practice of pushbacks by a EU member state. It will be asked what the European Parliament must demand with regard to humane refugee and migration policies and the situation at the EU's external borders.
An accompanying photo exhibition documents the situation in camp Vučjak.

Contact: Marco.Schwarz(at)fes-europe.eu

Please register until 07.11.2019 at: dietmar.koester(at)europarl.europa.eu