December 11 (SeeNews) - The Bosnian authorities have started transferring migrants from the improvised Vucjak camp earlier this week, following international criticism on the treatment of migrantс in the Balkan country, local media reported.
Last week, the Council of Europe said that Bosnia must immediately close down the Vucjak camp situated on the outskirts of Bihac, in the northwestern Una-Sana Canton, because of the deplorable living conditions in the facility.
"That camp should have never been opened in the first place. It is now urgent to relocate these people and provide them with decent accommodation," the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, has said.
On Tuesday, buses carried several hundreds of migrants from Vucjak to the former army barracks in Usivak, some 320 km south of Bihac and some 30 km from the capital Sarajevo, public broadcaster BHRT reported on Tuesday.
The migrants will remain at the new location temporarily, before being later relocated to former barracks in Blazuj, near the town of Tomislavgrad in southwestern Bosnia, once these facilities are adapted for the purpose, BHRT said.
The closure of Vucjak is expected to take place on Wednesday, BHRT quoted Una-Sana Canton's health minister, Nermina Cemalovic, as saying.
Earlier this year, the Bihac authorities began relocation refugees from Asia and the Middle East who had found shelter on the streets of Bihac to the Vucjak camp organised on the site of a former garbage dump close to the Croatian border.
In October, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) warned of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe at the Vucjak camp, saying some 700 migrants were living in the camp and their number would reach 2,500 some days later, while the camp had only 80 tents, no medical assistance, and just five volunteers from Bosnia's Red Cross Society to help.
Also in October, the European Union urged Bosnian authorities to close down the improvised Vucjak refugee shelter, underlining it is "not only unsafe but also an undignified location".
Since the beginning of 2019 until October, 23,000 migrants had arrived in Bosnia but with existing migrant reception full thousands were sleeping on the streets or squatting in empty houses, according to IFRC data.
The EU has provided 34 million euro ($38 million) to Bosnia since 2018 to help the provision of shelter, food, water, sanitation, clothing, psycho-social assistance and access to education and health in five reception centres.
($=0.902214 euro)