Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bihac/Sarajevo, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – “We still risk our lives,” said Hatidza*, a 26-year-old migrant transiting through Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Last time when we tried to pass the border, you could see the footsteps of wolves and bears. Some migrants and refugees were killed by bears. By now we have tried three times to pass the border unsuccessfully.”

Hatidza is a member of the Ahwazis minority group in Iran. She and her brother fled the country after their father was murdered and their family was threatened.

In the context of assisting in the transition and recovery of conflict affected societies and communities, IOM has supported disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programmes for ex-combatants/fighters and their communities of return, through more than 120 projects over the last 25 years. Primarily comprised of reintegration-related work, these projects have been spread across more than 30 countries, with particularly extensive work in Colombia and sub-Saharan Africa.

134 refugee and migrant children, from House of All, the Žene sa Une safe house, and the Sedra,
Borići, Ušivak, and Bira TRCs were enrolled in primary education.
IOM opened the Borići TRC on 3 January and the first 136 refugees and migrants moved in. The Borići TRC is predominantly for families with children.
Health care services in the Ušivak TRC are now provided by the Sarajevo Cantonal Health Institute through the Hadžići Primary Health Centre, with the support of DRC.

KEY INDICATORS

Renovation works in Borići were completed, opening 200 additional spaces. Transfer of families to the new location is planned to commence in early January.
Two Women and Girl centres, opened by UNFPA in December, are now functional and offer services in the Sedra TRC and the Bira TRC.
Significant progress was made with the organized integration of refugee and migrant children in local schools with the first formal enrolments in December.

KEY INDICATORS

4,500 – 5000 Estimated number of refugees and migrants at the end of December

TRENDS AND KEY FIGURES

In February, just over 3,600 refugees and migrants entered Europe via Italy, Greece and Spain. Overall arrivals to Spain (1,366 versus 4,612) decreased by just over 70% compared with the previous month while arrivals through routes to Greece (2,316 versus 2,652) and Italy (60 versus 202) decreased compared with the previous month. So far this year some 8,700 refugees and migrants arrived to Europe by sea compared to nearly 10,700 that arrived in the same period last year, marking an 18% decrease.

Croatia: EU complicit in violence and abuse by police against refugees and migrants

European governments are complicit in the systematic, unlawful and frequently violent pushbacks and collective expulsions of thousands of asylum seekers to squalid and unsafe refugee camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said Amnesty International in a report published today.

TRENDS AND KEY FIGURES

Europe, The Middle East, and Central Asia - Disaster Risk Reduction Fact Sheet, Fiscal Year (FY) 2018

OVERVIEW

• Natural hazards, such as droughts, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, and extreme winter weather, affect a range of countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia (EMCA). Protracted conflict and limited governmental disaster management capacity in many EMCA countries compound the risks associated with natural disasters. Furthermore, environmental degradation and rapid urban growth in some countries have led to overcrowding and settlement in hazard-prone areas.

VIENNA, 8 March 2019 – Greater efforts are needed to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls occurring both in private and public life, which prevents them from being full and equal participants in society, said OSCE senior officials on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Executive summary

What is this report about?

This report presents the cross-regional, comparable findings of the OSCE-led Survey on the Well-being and Safety of Women, which was implemented in 2018 in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine. The research was also conducted in Kosovo.

More than 200 families whose households were hit by catastrophic floods and landslides in 2014 are given an opportunity to improve their livelihood through project financed by the European Union and implemented by UNDP and partners.

On that Monday at 5 AM, 32-year old Edina left her home in Zavidovići and travelled to Vitez, city 68 kilometers away. Four hours and eight busses later, Edina arrived on time to participate in the training on entrepreneurship implemented by the Flood Recovery – Housing Interventions Programme.

Global Overview

**OVERVIEW **

The Central and South-Eastern Europe Country Cluster is managed from Budapest and covers 16 National Societies (Albania,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia) and Kosovo, where there is no recognised National Society. The cluster is highly diverse, with Red Cross National Societies tailoring their support to vulnerable people based on the local context and needs.

In 2018, the DTM Mediterranean team gathered 5,328 Flow Monitoring Surveys through a network of 30 DTM focal points and data collectors in 7 different countries on about 179 flow m onitoring p oints located on entry, inside and on the exit points in Spain, Italy, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Montenegro and the Republic of North Macedonia. In 2018, DTM Mediterranean published 6 analytical reports with insight into the profile of the interviewed migrants and their experiences during the journey to Europe.

The United Nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, supported by the Government of Switzerland, announced with a symbolic ceremony held on Friday, 22 February, the beginning of a four-year “Disaster Risk Reduction for Sustainable Development” programme, intended for local communities.

This week, MAG is finishing a task on the outskirts of Rotimlja village, two and a half hours south of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, which will see 3.1km2 of land returned to the local community. Much of the area is made of forest, which the villagers use to collect firewood and hunt, as well as land which can be used for small-scale agricultural activities and livestock rearing. Emir (pictured above) is one of 2,000 people set to benefit from access to this land.

• Over 25 530 detected refugees, asylum seekers and migrants have passed through Bosnia and Herzegovina since the beginning of January 2018.

Realizing lasting projects not only through the disaster operations it carried out, but also the permanent representatives it established, Turkish Red Crescent scaled the number to 12 with the representative it opened in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Protracted complex emergencies and natural disasters, including drought, earthquakes, floods, and wildfires, present significant challenges to vulnerable populations in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia (EMCA). Between FY 2009 and FY 2018, USAID’s Office of U.S.