By Roberta Gentili
From October 4 to December 4, 2023, I undertook fieldwork in the city of Bihać in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This research period focused on understanding the early years of the migration crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina (since 2018), with reference also to the 2020 pandemic that restricted the freedom of movement of migrants and refugees.
My fieldwork involved participant observation at key locations relating to migration in the Una Sana Canton and semi-structured interviews with people involved in migration management and humanitarian response.
As part of my observations, I visited both the previous sites where the informal camps were located, in Bihać and Velika Kladuša, and the previous official transit reception centers such as TRC Bira and TRC Sedra, closed in 2020 and 2021 respectively. I also engaged in informal conversations with people on the move outside institutional camps and at key gathering points such as the Bihać bus station.
Additionally, I visited Sarajevo and attended a conference in Tuzla organized by the organization IPSIA (Acli Institute for Peace Development and Innovation) as part of the BRAT ("Balkan Route: Accoglienza in Transito”) project. Many local organizations and UN agencies were present at the conference, and provided insights into the migration situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Tuzla I had the opportunity to visit a daily center and safe house for people on the move.
In general, my interviews and observations report that the migration situation in the canton has changed in the few months since my first fieldwork in May-June 2023. The number of people on the move accommodated in transit reception centers has increased significantly during the summer, as has the visibility of people on the move within the city of Bihać, and the number of reported pushbacks along the Croatian-Bosnian border.
Over the next months I will engage in an in-depth analysis of the collected data to prepare for future fieldwork that will focus on interviews primarily with people on the move in Una Sana Canton.