Hundreds of migrants remain stranded in Bosnia

Hundreds of migrants bound for western Europe have found themselves stuck in Bosnia in a no-man's land on the country's internal border, after separate local authorities set roadblocks to prevent them from entering their territories.

Earlier this month, authorities in Bosnia's northwestern Una-Sana Canton (USK) - an area which has seen an influx of migrants hoping to cross into Croatia and travel onwards towards western Europe - moved to make any transport or sheltering of incoming migrants illegal.

The decision allowed cantonal police to round up any migrants not already housed at one of the asylum centres there and deport them outside of the region.

However, as Bosnia's other regional government of Republika Srpska (RS) took a hardline stance on migrants and barred them from entering their territory, the migrants picked up by police in both jurisdictions end up deposited on Bosnia's internal border in the area near the town of Bosanska Otoka, next to an abandoned railroad track.

In less than two weeks, the number of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, has swollen to about 400.

Ignored by authorities, they are left in open air in the sweltering summer heat, stuck between police checkpoints on both sides of the tracks and relying on humanitarian aid and Red Cross for food and basic necessities.

Bosnia has seven migrant camps, all of them on the territory of the Bosniak-Croat Federation half of the country, including three near the city of Bihac in northwestern Bosnia, which house several thousand migrants.

With existing camps filled to the maximum capacity, it is estimated that an additional 1,500 migrants are living rough on the streets of Bihac and other border towns.

Many had tried crossing the border into Croatia only to be pushed back into Bosnia, with many claiming they had been beaten by border police - allegations that Croatia routinely denies.

Meanwhile, USK authorities reported that eight migrants housed in camps near Bihac had tested positive for COVID-19.

They were transferred to a public hospital there, to the outrage of the local population, which grew further after authorities announced that two infected migrants had escaped from isolation and fled.

Bosnia became a bottleneck for thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa seeking better lives in Europe in 2017, when other nations in the Balkans and central Europe closed off previously established migration paths.

Since the beginning of this year, some 10,500 migrants and refugees have entered Bosnia, whose infrastructure has never truly recovered from its brutal 1992-95 war.