Human Rights Watch on Thursday called on Bosnian authorities to take urgent action to protect hundreds of migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina living in inhumane conditions, primarily those staying around the northwestern town of Bihac, close to Croatian border.

“Hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers in northwest Bosnia are spending the winter in dire conditions because the authorities have repeatedly failed to address their basic needs,” Lydia Gall, a Senior Europe Researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a press release reported by Croatia’s state agency Hina on Thursday.

“It is unacceptable for hundreds of migrants to stay in tents without medical care in winter conditions,” the human rights group said, and called for authorities to take urgent action to provide migrants with adequate accommodation.

The criticism leveled at Bosnian authorities refers mainly to the situation at the Lipa temporary camp near Bihac, Hina said.

A temporary tent camp was established there during the summer of 2020, which held 1,000 migrants. It was shut down in December because the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which operated the camp deemed the camp unsafe for winter conditions as tents were in jeopardy of collapsing under the weight of snowfall. The camp also had no access to electricity or running water.

Bosnia’s government passed a decision to convert the Lipa camp into a permanent reception center with sturdier container dwellings. However, installing the units is expected to take at least three months, and no alternative solution has been found to accommodate migrants in the meantime.

Following a fire in the camp, an attempt was made to relocate the migrants to an army barracks in Bradina in central Bosnia, which was met by opposition by locals who blocked the buses transporting them.

They were then transferred back to Lipa, where they initially lived in makeshift tents again, before Bosnian army set up its heated tents, water and electricity.