In recent years, an increasing number of migrants have arrived from Africa and the Middle East to Europe, seeking better economic opportunities and an escape from conflict in their home countries.
A majority hope to end up in European Union (EU) countries such as Germany or Italy and must cross along the Western Balkan migration route to reach them. As migration through the Western Balkans, specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), has increased in recent years, the EU has donated significant funds to support “border protection programs.”
These programs are largely implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and to provide supplies and management for migrant “reception centers.” There have been many shortfalls in these approaches, such as instances of border police violence against migrants and mismanagement of funds at these reception centers. As a result, migrants often fear for their safety while crossing the borders and increasingly turn to smugglers to help them get across.
Police Violence Against Migrants
Police, who receive significant funding for “border protection” programs, often pose one of the largest safety threats to migrants. Over the past six years, the EU has provided 20 million Euros aimed at “strengthening the system of migration management and border control in BiH”. Currently, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is also involved in expanding the border police program. In May 2024, 98 new cadets were trained and attained the rank of “police officer.” The support of these, and 22 previously-trained cadets, came in the form of financial support from the EU (IOM, 2024).
The Director of Border Police of BiH, Mirko Kuprešaković, stated that the role of the border police is to “preserve [a] stable and safe environment” that “contribute[s] to the safety of all our citizens”. Despite this stated objective, there have been many instances of police brutality against migrants, especially along the Bosnian-Croatian border.
In an article, “Mapping Counter-Trafficking in Potential Migrant Crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” published by two professors at the University of Sarajevo, there is a compiled list of migrant testimonies in which they report experiencing physical violence. “I have been beaten by Croatian police. Hurt legs and hands. Not head nor torso, just hands and legs” and “I have been beaten by uniformed Croatian police. They took my mobile and never got it back.”
In a report by Protecting Rights at Borders, migrant testimonies include that of one interviewee who experienced rights violations at the Croatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina border on March 29, 2023: “There were a few policemen and one policewoman. They started searching through our personal things and bags. They took our money. Each one of us had 50-100 Euros that they took. They also broke our mobile phones. They were beating us hard with police sticks and with their legs. They also forced us to take our shoes off and to put them in the water, then to put them back on our feet. So, we were in wet shoes. Then, a police van came there. They told us to sit in the van, and then drove us back to Šturlić early this morning.”
Violence against Muslim women is especially prevalent in cases of police brutality. In an Al Jazeera article, Journalist Nidžara Ahmentašević describes a girl from Afghanistan being stopped at the Slovenian border: “She said the officers ordered the women in the group to remove their niqabs. When she refused to do so and started to cry, a policeman forcefully removed the garment and threw it on the floor. “Here is not Afghanistan, here is Slovenia,” the policeman allegedly told her. “Here is no Islam.” Ahmentašević provides a similar example on the border with Croatia, in which a woman from Iran was held at gunpoint while her daughter and husband were beaten up by police officers before being forced to return to BiH.
Vanja Stokić is the Editor-in-Chief of eTrafika, an online publication that focuses on human rights and marginalized groups. She has visited camps throughout BiH to observe the conditions and talk to migrants. She describes hearing about similar experiences from the people she spoke to: “When we were filming ‘Brother,’ we saw from the experiences of migrants, but also activists, that [Serbian] police is behaving like Croatian police, beating people and making people cross the river back to Serbia, also using guns and shooting at people to prevent them coming into Bosnia.”
Lack of Basic Necessities at “Reception Centers”
Once inside the BiH border, migrants often stop at “reception centers” for temporary shelter. According to Stokić, migrants may let each other know about the locations of the camps via WhatsApp groups. Sometimes, migrants “don’t want to go to the camps, they want to be in abandoned buildings, but police catch them and take them to the camps,” she said.
In recent years, the EU has donated millions of euros to these camps, and more largely, to support “migration-related actions” as part of the EU action plan on the Western Balkans. Under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) III, €201.7 million has been used for programs “designed to strengthen” both “the capacity to manage migration in the region” as well as the “border management capacity.” In a recent report, “Special Measures to Support the Response to the Refugee and Migrant Situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina Phase III,” there is a table outlining the money that the EU has spent to “support the coordination and management of reception centres, provide for the basic food and shelter needs of [Persons of Concern], including water sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and facilitate access to protection services.”
Despite these funds, migrants held in these centers still lack the basic necessities they need. From Stokić’s point of view, the officials who receive EU funds are acting as though the migrants “are going to disappear.” Instead, the money is spent to “feed the system itself,” she said. According to her, there are many people employed in the camps — with managers for several different things — yet the migrants still do not receive basic necessities, such as clothing. “I heard those [things] from the people directly so many times. Conditions are quite bad,” Stokić said.
Silvia Maraone is the Director of the Bosnia and Herzegovina branch of Istituto Pace Sviluppo Innovazione ACLI (Associazioni Cristiane Lavoratori Italiani), also known as IPSIA BiH, an Italian NGO that has been working in Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1997. She echoes these concerns, pointing out that, when there is a heavy flow of migrants, the camps can become overcrowded, which can lead to a lack of blankets, hygiene kits, and food. She also attributes these issues to problems with the budget and management of funds. “When the EU sends the funds, they send a procurement and there must be a public tender,” Maraone said. “If you need 2000 blankets that day, you don’t have it… Sometimes it’s difficult to manage when the camps are overcrowded.”
Smuggling
Without receiving any support from border police and at migration centers, migrants are given little choice but to turn to alternative methods to support their migration, and are thus often taken advantage of by smugglers. According to Stokić, these smugglers have “good PR” and promise migrants safe transportation to EU countries and help to find a job for a small sum of money. Migrants end up in situations where they are brought part of the way — to Albania, for instance — upon which the smuggler tells them that if they want to go further, they need to pay more. “Some of them don’t have money, and they end up as slaves in some factory or some field, growing apples [for example],” she said. “So there is a huge danger of becoming part of some smuggler network.”
According to Maraone, organized groups of smugglers have “tak[en] the lead” in BiH in the last year, changing migrant transit routes. “Before, they had to go by walking through the mountains, but when it became impossible to cross these borders, then the smugglers found a new way – the so-called ‘taxi game’ – to go from one point to the other of the country and on the European Union border,” Maraone explained. “There are connections between local groups and migrant groups that organize this smuggling system, and there is exploitation of the people.”
Smugglers pose one of the greatest threats to the safety of migrants, because of the dangers involved in the smuggling business. “I was never afraid of migrants,” Stokić said. “I met thousands of them, but I’m quite afraid of smugglers, because those are criminals. When you have one smuggler, you have another one, and they are in conflict because they are arguing, they are fighting for territory, so there are a lot of arms involved and everything.”
The migration situation in the Western Balkans, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, continues to be marked by severe challenges, including police violence, inadequate reception conditions, and the growing influence of dangerous smuggling networks. Despite significant EU funding, the needs of migrants are still not being met, and the lack of support from authorities exacerbates their vulnerability. Addressing these issues requires comprehensive reforms, improved management of resources, and greater protection for migrants throughout the region.
