“In Erbil, the city where I come from, we don’t feel safe anymore, and live in constant fear of increasing threat of terrorism in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.”
They have been on the road to Europe since 2017 after fleeing Kurdistan.
“We are almost a month here in this dormitory in Bihac, still waiting for our chance to reach Germany, Netherlands or France it doesn’t matter. This is the tenth month of our journey from Iraq through Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia. ”
I would like to live anywhere in Europe where I am welcome, just to have a decent and safe living and where my children could gain a proper education.
The hardest times on our journey we experienced in Bulgaria, where we had to walk through woods and snow for four days. After the third day, I seriously feared for my life and lives of my children, I thought that we won’t make it.
Following the closure of the so-called Western Balkans route in March 2016, the severed border policies in the region have resulted in the fragmentation of the movement of refugees/migrants through South-Eastern Europe opening new smuggling pathways in certain parts of Western Balkans that have not been affected so far.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, which having a 1,000 km border with EU, has emerged in 2018 as an alternative migration route starting from Turkey via Greece and Albania through Serbia and Montenegro as a gateway to their EU dream.
The crossing into EU is exceptionally difficult due to heightened restrictions on the borders and regular roads, and many people often resort to smugglers who expose them to additional risk putting their lives in danger.
Cheman and other migrants and refugees refer to every attempt to cross the border as a ‘game.’
Refusing to expose their identities, many of them spoke of physical violence, of possessions being confiscated or destroyed and money and cell phones seized.
Like Cheman and her children, some 5,000 of migrants and refugees are staying in hard conditions in improvised tent camps and dilapidated dormitory, in the northwestern towns of Bihac and Velika Kladusa in Una Sana Canton near the Croatian border as they wait to pass to other European countries.
“People here are very good, everyone wants to help, but the conditions in this dormitory are very bad. The building has no windows or doors, there are also holes in the floor and there are only six toilets and shower cabins – on a thousand people”
The country currently has only two state governed asylum and refugee reception centres, which have a combined capacity for approximately 400 people, but none of them are not close to these towns in the country northwestern region.
In early June, the European Commission through ECHO agreed to provide Bosnia and Herzegovina with €1.5 million to help those in Bihac and Velika Kladusa.
The opening of a new reception centre in Una Sana Canton, which currently accommodates 26 most vulnerable families, established with ECHO support and managed together by IOM and UNHCR, represents a significant step in improving reception conditions for vulnerable refugees and migrants in the Una Sana Canton.
Besides food and accommodation, the residents will have access to medical, legal and psychological aid and will be able to have full access to asylum process.
Despite the possibility of moving to the new reception centre, Cheman decided to stay with her children in a dilapidated dormitory and give one more try to win the “game”.
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