An internment wing is being built in the Bosnian refugee camp Lipa, commissioned and financed by the European Union. NGOs fear a deportation prison at the EU’s external border.
The wing is difficult to see from the outside. However, it is clear that the containers have lattice windows – although metre-high fences and a screen are intended to prevent a closer look. Here, in the Lipa refugee camp, an internment wing is being built.
The camp is about 25 kilometers from the northwestern Bosnian town of Bihac, on a windswept plateau surrounded by red signs warning of mines from the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. This is where many people end up who have failed when trying to get to neighboring Croatia and thus to the EU.
Journalists will not come to the camp until further notice. The Austrian Greens MP Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic has pushed through a visit. But she could not see the cells of the disputed wing either.
The head of the camp doesn’t have a key for the new wing himself, says Ernst-Dziedzic: “They say it’s not open yet. They don’t know who will then run it and when it will open. They also don’t know who will then responsible and what should happen then.” So what is the purpose of the internment building in the middle of the Bosnian wasteland?
Unclear jurisdiction
The internment wing was paid for by the EU Commission. She made 500,000 euros available for this. The International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) based in Vienna implemented the construction. It is an organization that researches migration-related issues and makes recommendations to its sponsors.
The center is headed by Michael Spindelegger, Austria’s ex-vice chancellor and a member of the conservative Austrian People’s Party, which has backed hard-line positions on flight and migration issues for years. The ICMPD initially denied being involved in the “construction of detention cells or anything similar”, but later admitted that it was a “detention room”.
In an ICMPD response to the ARD It says: “After the authorities had confirmed that all necessary conditions were met, ICMPD began construction of the extension building.”
They have coordinated with the Bosnian Ministry of Security. But that is not responsible for the building permit. In the canton of Una Sana, where Lipa is located, no one wants the internment wing to be approved either.
unclear purpose
It is also unclear what purpose it serves. The EU ambassador for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Johann Sattler, said during a hastily organized visit: The wing serves to protect the people of Lipa from “troublemakers”. However, the camp management and the International Organization for Migration report that there are hardly any conflicts or violence in Lipa.
Non-governmental organizations have long suspected that detention centers could be set up outside the EU so that refugees and migrants can be deported before they can assert possible asylum or other protection claims in the EU.
This is also indicated by the visit of the Hungarian EU Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi to Bosnia and Herzegovina last November. Várhelyi announced an EU pilot project in Lipa and said that “the wrong asylum seekers must be detained until they return to their countries of origin”.
deportations against accession negotiations?
Petar Rosandic from the Viennese aid organization “SOS Balkanroute” has been following the debate surrounding Camp Lipa since it was founded. With regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU candidate status, he believes in a deal: the country should become a deportation zone for the EU. Accession assistance and the prospect of rapid accession negotiations could be a thank you.
The EU delegation in Bosnia and Várhelyi’s office write to the ARD: “An effective and humane return policy for those who are not eligible for international protection is essential to ensure that those who are eligible can have their claims examined in a timely manner.” According to international law, however, every person has the right to an individual examination of an asylum application.
The legal basis is not clarified
In the region around Lipa, however, this is not a matter of course: it has long been documented that neighboring Croatia pushes asylum seekers back to Bosnia and Herzegovina without examining individual cases and often using force.
And the final examination of an asylum application can hardly be done in 72 hours. According to the EU Commission, refugees and migrants should be allowed to stay in the new internment wing in Lipa for as long as possible. The legal basis for this period of time is unclear – as is the legal basis for the detention center itself.
According to the EU Commission, the immigration office in Sarajevo is to take responsibility for the construction. Deputy head of agency Mirsad Buzar says in the ARD-Interview that there is still no legal basis for the operation.
With the help of a cooperation partner from Austria, the EU is building an internment wing in Camp Lipa, where refugees and migrants live, without a clear legal basis – with funds that are supposed to make Bosnia and Herzegovina fit for the EU.