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A day in Bihać: Bosnia

27/8/2020

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Each person told us how the police had beaten them, they showed us their bruises and scars
Part of my work here in Bosnia is to collect reports of pushbacks (a pushback is when someone is returned over the border without the chance to claim asylum) for the Border Violence Monitoring Network. This sounds very formal and official, and it is, but collecting all the information for the report usually starts with a conversation whilst sat on the ground chatting to people. Here in Bihac there are a couple of parks where people on the move hang out - the camps are full and they have nowhere else to go. A couple of days ago Stef and I were meeting a friend who we’d chatted to a few days previously and had recently been pushed back. It sounded awful and the report will soon be available. This friend then took us to talk to another guy, while we were talking more people came to tell us their stories. A tired guy - he was 20 but looked much younger - had been badly beaten whilst crossing into Croatia. He was in a group of 50 or 60 people who trekked over the mountains trying to avoid detection by the Croatian police. He told us how the police fired into the air and made everyone lie down. The police searched each person for money and even found where some people had sewn notes into the waistband of their trousers. One by one, each person was brought forward and beaten with a black baton. They were sent back to Bosnia without anything. The police made a fire with all the belongings not worth stealing. All the belongings - they were deported back to Bosnia in just their underwear. 

While we stood there talking, a group formed around us. Each person told us how the police had beaten them, they showed us their bruises and scars. Another guy approached us with a large white plaster cast. His wrist had been slashed open by a rock during the violence of the Croatian authorities. He said he had no sensation in his fingers. He timidly showed me the paper from the hospital - written in a language neither of us could understand. I believe he was first treated in Croatia but deported nonetheless. 

Another man I spoke to had amazing tattoos, which all represent freedom and peace. He took care to explain them to me, and then he asked me to photograph the bruises on his back. The police had woken him up whilst he slept outside and then beaten him at the police station before taking him and two hundred others to a city 50 kilometres away. He had just finished walking back. 
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Everyone I have spoken to here has been confused and upset about why they are kept here like this. The way to cross into the European Union is so difficult and dangerous - but the alternative of returning to a war torn country is worse. Not worse, impossible. Voluntary repatriation means that someone can request to be returned to their home country - this can only be authorised if the country they are returning to is safe enough. These people are trapped in Bosnia without a way to go forwards or backwards. “We want to work, we want to contribute.” “My brother is there, how can I get to him?” 

I am so fortunate to meet so many kind and funny people. We discuss politics, Bosnian food and the lack of spice, and different flavours of energy drink. We show each other pictures of our homes and our families.

There are so, so many people here and the situation can’t remain like this. Please read this, share it and talk about it. This is not ok. We must do something.
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Where am i? Bosnia Factfile

17/8/2020

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Despite living in a neighbouring country for the last two month, I knew very little about Bosnia before moving here. It’s been a steep learning curve so far and it will continue to be so, but here are the basics of my new home. 

Bosnia is the informal name of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is located in the Balkans and is a developing country. It was a part of the former Yogoslavia. 

Population 

The total population is around 3.3 million people with three distinct groups, Bosniaks who are Muslim, Bosnian Serbs and Croats. Each group has a president and the three presidents are supposed to work together to run the country. You only need to ask a local about how this is working...

Different regions

Bosnia is actually called Bosnia and Herzegovina but there are actually three distinct regions. Republika Srpska is predominantly Serb, the Federation is mostly Bosniak, and Herzegovina is kind of its own thing in the south of the country. The official Bosnian capital is Sarajevo but Banja Luka is the capital of Republika Srpska - so it might depend on who you’re talking to.

Where I am

I’m in Una Sana Canton. A canton is a fairly autonomous area (like a county but bigger) near the border with Croatia. It’s a stunning, mountainous area and is a popular tourist destination for outdoor activities like hiking and water sports. The River Una is clear and beautiful and the pride of the locals. Una Sana bears the burden of the migration crisis due to its location at the Croatian border.

Migration Crisis

Here are some official statistics about the number of people on the move here. Most of them are guessed or lied about. 
Total people: 7200
People camps: 5000
Asylum requests: 1600
Asylum granted: 0 (2018) Data from here

It’s estimated by local organisations that, in the area in and around the city of Bihać, there are at least 2000 people outside of the camps.
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Bihać

Bihać is the biggest city in the canton and the hub for the multiple organisations that are trying to help. The big NGOs here include International Organisation for Migrants (IOM), Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) who have different roles and responsibilities in and out of the official camps. There are plenty of smaller organisations too of which my organisation No Name Kitchen is one of. There’s a lot of history here connected with Turkish occupation and Austro-Hungarian conflicts to World War II and the recent Bosnian War. The beautiful mosque in the main, pedestrianised square used to be a church. Cafes and bars range from the hipster to the grotty and there’s a bakery and a vegetable shop on every corner. 

The end of the war, just 25 years ago, is written indelibly on the country: in the faces, buildings and mountains. Bullet holes are still visible on the walls of houses, and grassy craters from grenades line the road. The migrant crisis is unavoidably public too. Groups of bored and tired guys sit in the park and wander the streets - the camps are full and there are few safe places to go.


There’s a lot for me to learn about the politics here. Politics is everything. People on the move are suffering at the hands of the politics of both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Western Europe, and we must find a way to make a contribution towards helping them and raising awareness. 

Wish me luck, questions and comments below. 
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New friends: volunteers in Šid, Serbia

7/8/2020

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Volunteering always means meeting incredible and interesting people. Working in Serbia has been no exception. Living in a small town and not speaking any Serbian (beyond ordering vast amounts of bread - ‘dvadeset hlabova’) made it quite difficult to meet Serbian people. Thankfully Laura and Iva from Novi Sad speak perfect English and it was brilliant working with them when they came to Šid. Here’s what Laura wrote about for me to post.
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My name is Laura; I'm 22 years old and was born and have lived my whole life in Novi Sad. For as long as I can remember, I've always believed in the ideals of liberty and equality, which have guided my development both in thought and action. Because of that and extensive research, when I was around 16, I started identifying myself as a leftist, and since turning 18 I've been involved in various activist initiatives - community vegan cooking, student activism, anti-government protests, anti-eviction actions, etc. Currently I am working in an organization working with LGBT+ youth in my home town (I am, in my spare time, transgender and bisexual, which has also shaped my involvement in social justice).


One particular area of interest for me has always been anti-nationalism and anti-war activism. Living in a country which took active part in bloody conflicts throughout its recent history, and which is still very much shaped by ethnic-based politics and the (largely unacknowledged) legacy of war crimes, has certainly helped put these issues at the forefront for me. Because of all that, the so-called "Migrant Crisis" has from the beginning been something I've followed closely and talked about often. The horrible mistreatment of the people on the move, as well as the firing up of the mainstream nationalist, racist and islamophobic rhetoric which all seem to be at the foundation of Serbian society, in my opinion should make this a central issue for all the progressive forces living in this country. At the same time, however, I was living in a city where there's almost no migrant population, and as such no organizations/groups working on this issue, and so I didn't really know how to get involved. Given that, when the opportunity arose for me to come and volunteer at No Name Kitchen (my friend was going there to volunteer and they needed as much help as they could get because everybody else had left due to the Covid-19 restrictions), I felt compelled to immediately seize it. So far I've been to Šid to help out on a couple of occasions, and have been supporting the organization from Novi Sad as much as I can, by organising clothes donations, helping to translate, stuff like that. I'm really glad to have the opportuinty to help out in any way I can, and would love to continue being involved and, if possible, come back there to keep volunteering!


It’s hard to describe how different Serbia feels from Western Europe, and it’s hard to have an idea of a place without some insight from people that grew up here. If you have any questions for Laura or for me, comment below!
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