Bosnia-Herzegovina de/re-routings
By Shahid Aziz
Following our May workshop in Sarajevo, on May 22nd and 23rd, Claudio, Dragan, and I were able to visit both of the two remaining Temporary Reception Centres in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as additional important sites in the Una-Sana Canton, en route back to Trieste.
Our research visits in Bosnia began with the Blažuj Temporary Reception Centre, a camp on the outskirts of Sarajevo. Accompanied by Yolanda, we were met at the camp by members of a non-governmental organization. They discussed the changes in their work following the closure of the nearby Ušivak Temporary Reception Centre, and their observations of rhythms of life in the camp.
From Sarajevo, Claudio, Dragan and I continued to Bihać, where, the following day, we met up with Advisory Board member Silvia Maraone to visit the Lipa Temporary Reception Centre. This camp now hosts families and unaccompanied minors, in addition to single adult men. Another major shift seen across both camps is that Sudanese are now the largest nationality represented in reception centres in Bosnia.
After our visit to the camp, we stopped at an abandoned socialist-era industrial complex in Bihać that previously functioned as a massive makeshift camp for up to 2,000 people. Viewing the remnants and graffiti provided insights for our research project, revealing structural parallels with other transit hubs, most notably the Silos in Trieste.
For the team, and especially for me as a cultural mediator active on the ground in Trieste, entering both Blažuj and Lipa, as well as the makeshift camp, was an eye-opening experience: it allowed me to understand the upstream reality of the arrivals we witness in Italy, connecting real places to the stories, the route, the camps, and the borders I hear about daily.