Snowstorm about Lipa: Refugee camp in mortal danger - heroism of volunteers!

Snowstorm about Lipa: Refugee camp in mortal danger - heroism of volunteers!

In a dramatic effort, around a hundred people were saved from a limited refugee camp in Lipa, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The violent snowstorm, which raged on December 24th, led to the proclamation of the state of emergency in the region. While the responsible authorities were unable to organize an evacuation, brave volunteers from the area came to the refugees. A resident of the warehouse urgently warned that someone would have died without this quick use, as the Serbian weekly newspaper Novosti reported.

The refugee camp was cut off from the outside world for two entire days due to the snow masses. The electricity failed, which made the heating and drinking water supply impossible. The Red Cross could not deliver the urgently needed food, which led to a hungry situation - a young man from the camp described: "We didn't eat anything for two days." On December 22, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 113 people were still in the camp. The evacuates were finally taken into care in a nearby city, as well as from Kosmo reported.

repeated humanitarian crises

The LIPA warehouse has been in humanitarian criticism for years, since there are always blatant care bottlenecks and grievances. After a devastating fire in 2020, the camp was inadequate for weeks, while the Bosnian authorities could not offer any accommodations. Despite the repeated international support and reporting, the situation for the refugees remains precarious. According to media reports, aid organizations are often denied access to difficult storage conditions, which also exacerates the situation. The condition of the migrants, mainly from Morocco, Afghanistan and Syria, once again show the urgent need for effective humanitarian and political solutions that go beyond voluntary support. As addressed by fr.de , the ongoing difficulties at the Bosnisch-Croatian border are enormously and associated with it too Human rights challenges that may no longer be ignored.