Skip to main content

Migrants: Council of Europe, Vucjak to be closed immediately

(ANSA) - BELGRADE, DECEMBER 6 - "The living conditions of hundreds of human beings in the improvised Vucjak camp," in Bosnia and Herzegovina, "are shameful" and the site should immediately closed, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, said today at the end of a four-day visit to the Balkan country. In the camp, some 600 migrants are on hunger strike since days, protesting the conditions at the site and demanding that the border opens. Vucjak was created last summer by local authorities in a location considered dangerous and not fit for hosting people by international organizations and NGOs. The conditions at the camp became totally unbearable in the last days, when show starting to fell, with subzero temperatures. "The living conditions in Vucjak were already terrible before the cold weather and have become even more inhumane now that temperatures have dropped below freezing. Human beings, including several minors, are amassed in the mud on a former landfill next to land-mined areas. They have no running water and sanitary and hygienic conditions are dire. Many people lack adequate clothing and footwear. It is inhumane and unacceptable to keep people in such conditions," said Mijatovic. "That camp should have never been opened in the first place. It is now urgent to relocate these people and provide them with decent accommodations. I was assured by the State Minister of Security that this relocation is imminent." (ANSA).