Bosnia and Herzegovina’s treatment of detained migrants should raise concerns for governments considering sending additional migrants to the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Processing delays, limited access to lawyers, and concerns over conditions and access to services have placed migrants at risk.
The UK government proposed Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with Serbia and Albania, as potential Balkans locations for a return hub. Asylum seekers from other countries whose claims had been rejected would be sent there while arrangements would be made to return them to their countries of origin or other third countries.
“Prolonged detention of migrants without adequate safeguards puts people at risk of rights violations,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Adding rejected asylum seekers from the UK, or potentially the EU, to Bosnia’s already troubling detention system would only exacerbate existing issues and worsen abuses.”
The European Commission has also proposed establishing return hubs in as yet unspecified locations outside the European Union to facilitate returns of people ordered to leave the EU. The Commission also proposed making it easier for EU countries to send asylum seekers to countries outside the EU designated as “safe” for the processing of their asylum claims. Outsourcing responsibility for migrants and asylum seekers is inherently problematic, Human Rights Watch said.