Photos: Bosnia to close controversial migrant camp

Bosnian authorities began to move several hundred migrants out of a ramshackle camp near the Croatian border following international condemnation of the site's inhumane conditions. The migrants, mostly men from Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, boarded buses at the Vucjak camp in northwest Bosnia, according to an AFP photographer. Local authorities say the 350 migrants will be temporarily housed at an official centre outside the capital Sarajevo -- a destination far from the Croatian border that the migrants want to cross to reach the European Union.

Updated on: Dec 12, 2019 6:26 PM IST

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Migrants walk among tents as night falls over the improvised migrants camp “Vucjak”, in the outskirts of Northern-Bosnian town of Bihac. Bosnian authorities have begun to move several hundred migrants out of the ramshackle camp near the Croatian border following international condemnation of the site’s inhumane conditions. (Elvis Barukcic / AFP)

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Illegal migrants carry a resupply of water from a nearby well. Local authorities say the 350 migrants will be temporarily housed at an official centre outside the capital Sarajevo -- a destination far from the Croatian border that the migrants want to cross to reach the European Union. (Elvis Barukcic / AFP)

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Migrants sit around an improvised stove as they prepare their food at the Vucjak camp. At the camp, a cluster of tents that lack running water, heating or proper toilets, was set up close to the border in June. The site immediately drew international criticism for being on top of a landfill, in an area littered with mines from the 1990s Balkans war. (Elvis Barukcic / AFP)

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Over the past six months, thousands of migrants have used it as base for attempted border crossings. According to Bosnian Red Cross official Selam Midzic, nearly 25,000 migrants have passed through the camp. (Elvis Barukcic / AFP)

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Illegal migrants wait to board buses, after leaving the makeshift camp. The decision to close the site came after Dunja Mijatovic, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, visited last week and warned of potential deaths if the camp was not closed immediately, especially as temperatures have plunged as winter sets in. (Elvis Barukcic / AFP)

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Illegal migrants sit in a bus following their evacuation of the makeshift camp “Vucjak”. According to local reports, several hundred migrants have set out in recent days in last-ditch attempts to enter Croatia and continue westward into the EU. Bosnia’s security minister says migrants who have been moved out of the camp will eventually be housed at a new centre under construction in a former army barracks near Sarajevo. (Elvis Barukcic / AFP)

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Illegal migrants walk on a forest trail towards the Croatian border, after leaving the Vucjak camp. Some 8,000 migrants are currently in Bosnia, whose official UN-run migrant centres can hold up to 5,000 people. (Elvis Barukcic / AFP)

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Illegal migrants walk among tents at the Vucjak camp. The impoverished country has become a key stop on a migrant route that runs through the Balkans to Western Europe. While most migrants eventually move on, Croatian police push many back at least temporarily, leaving them stuck in Bosnia for long periods of time. (Elvis Barukcic / AFP)