Bosnia migrant camp closure leaves 1,400 found in cold
Hundreds of migrants have already been still left without shelter amid harsh winter conditions after a good camp was first closed and then set burning in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Aid agencies pulled out of the Lipa camp, in the north-western metropolis of Bihac, saying it had been unsustainable without water and electricity.
Residents forced to keep the facility, create to provide shelter through the Covid-19 pandemic, looted equipment and place fire to tents, police said.
No injuries were reported.
On Wednesday morning hours, the residents of the Lipa center received food and sleeping bags because they left the camp.
Some later set up makeshift camps found in a nearby forest, while some reportedly moved to derelict buildings.
But several migrants came back to the camp and place fire to many tents, officials said.
Firefighters were called to the picture and the blaze was first quickly brought under control.
The UN's International Business office for Migration (IOM) said the momentary Lipa camp was create due to "overcrowding and unsuitable conditions elsewhere".
"For a number of reasons, mostly political, it never got linked to the main water or electricity source," the IOM said found in a good statement on Wednesday.
The fires started just minutes following the camp was shut, the statement said, adding that the closure possessed left about 1,400 migrants, including women and children, "stranded" - bringing the amount of those looking for humanitarian aid in the area to almost 3,000.
The IOM's Western Balkans co-ordinator, Peter van der Auweraert, said the blaze had destroyed or damaged "just about all infrastructure", adding that it turned out a "terrible day" that had piled "disaster after disaster".
"What concerns us is certainly that lots of have said they'll go to Sarajevo or [the border community of] Velika Kladuza," explained Mr van der Auweraert. "We know that there is zero additional capacity at the shelters."
The Lipa camp was formed in response to border closures when the coronavirus pandemic broke out earlier this season, leaving people stranded in your community. Conditions there deteriorated after negotiations to set up facilities were met with native opposition.
Thousands of men and women have entered the united states from spots like Afghanistan and Syria, hoping to make their way over the border to Croatia, that is a member of the European Union. However, many have already been forced to stay there.
