Migrants abandoned in Bosnia as EU rethinks asylum policy

Murtaza Jaffer
Press TV, London

The International Organization for Migration has warned that time is running out for some two and a half thousand migrant refugees sleeping rough in Bosnia.

According to the UN’s refugee agency, Bosnian authorities are restricting access to migrants who are stuck in makeshift shelters as the harsh winter approaches.

So far the EU has given Bosnia 60 million Euros in emergency funding to aid the migrant flow of people, however in recent months authorities have begun emptying reception centers, pushing people out of urban areas and abandoning them in forests to fend for themselves.

Meanwhile in Brussels, The European Union's top migration officials have launched a new plan to overhaul the EU’s failing asylum system, criticizing the bloc’s pandering to anti immigrant sentiments.

The current system aims to deport individuals who do not qualify as refugees as soon as possible, whilst providing Countries like Bosnia large aid packages to halt the flow of people before they get to European borders.

However the new plan, aims to build greater cooperation with neighboring countries to ensure migrant refugees are not mistreated by authorities. scenes of neglect and even exploitation are rife, particularly in Libya where migrants have been tortured and even sold into slavery or have been used as soldiers in the civil war.

For many such truths are better ignored, but whichever way it’s framed, such realities are a direct consequence of the EU’s policy. Sooner or later the bloc will have to own its role in the plight of so many suffering at its borders.

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