WHICH HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE BEEN VIOLATED TO REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS IN BOSNIA?

 

WHICH HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE BEEN VIOLATED TO REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS IN BOSNIA?

Health is a human right issue,

human rights are a health issue ,

human rights violation results in adverse health effects
                        Dr. Jonathan Mann (1947-1998), a former WHO official

  About four thousand refugees and migrants are caught in a trap made by the authorities of the EU / USA protectorate of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the so-called "humanitarian organizations". These organizations, although paid to help people (a sum of ten million euros to the IOM alone, was heard) are doing everything possible to make life of the refugees and migrants unbearable, in order to make them "voluntarily return" from where they came from (that is business, organized by the IOM). Human rights are in that way violated by those who are paid to defend them. Let's take a quick look at the list of violations of human rights to refugees in Bosnia following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed by all UN members.

  Art. 3 - The Right to Life

  There is no official mortality data, and the figures recorded by the press refer to 15 people who died from drowning (in the river Kupa while attempting to cross the border), 2 people who died from the disease (in both cases from pneumonia, in the first case the treatment was delayed, in the second case it did not even begin) and 1 migrant who was killed by knife in a physical altercation for the use of a shower. This data is incomplete (18 death cases), but it is certainly an indicator of the degree of human rights violations because all of these deaths were the result of unfavorable conditions made by the authorities and "humanitarians". At this point it should be noted that in February 2017 Médicins du Monde (Doctors of the World) proposed the formation of "safe corridors" for the passage of migrants and refugees at their will (in accordance with the right to freedom of movement) which would allow for better health and well-being of people but would also offer better control of health and all of its side effects. Obviously, the EU policy went in the opposite direction. The results are in front of us.

  Art. 5 - Prohibition of torture, inhuman treatment and punishment

  International law considers a systematic refusal of medical assistance a torture act. In Bosnian UN agencies-run camps, people are dying because they are deprived of primary medical care and many are at risk of disability because their chronic illnesses are not adequately treated. In addition, refugees and migrants are physically abused, both by police of neighboring countries and by private security services in camps that were set up by UN agencies.

  Art. 13 - The right to free movement

  Refugees and migrants in BiH are banned from using public transport. This means that a migrant from Kladuša, referred by doctor for a diagnostic examination in Bihać, cannot attend the examination if he is not transported by the UN agencies, and in many cases they are reluctant to do so. A private individual may be accused of violating the law if he or she helps refugees in transportation. We know a patient in Kladuša who has been waiting for a transport to the hospital in Bihać for more than 2.5 months and although he has all the necessary papers and even has the money for the medical treatment (which has been collected by the activists) the humanitarian agency responsible for the transportation (IOM) does not want to transport him ... And whoever wants to go from Sarajevo to Kladuša (approx. 370 km through the mountains in the winter) must travel on foot.

  Art. 14 - Right to asylum

  Impassable borders, police officers who are beating, humiliating and kidnapping migrants, are well-known practices by EU members from the edge of this political group. This practice has been largely covered in the media, and therefore we are not analyzing it here, although it is crucial that a certain policy and resolution of a group of countries raise the violation of human rights to the level of their basic policy.

  Art. 25 - The right to health (and other rights under this article)

  Refugees and migrants are generally a vulnerable group, with specific categories of vulnerable groups within (disabled, women and children, elderly people ...), but their health and lives are threatened by the policy of reducing the health care of migrants (it is the EU “trade mark” that has been repeatedly criticized by officials from the UN, and two general secretaries even dedicated their speeches to this topic, furthermore, books and studies that have also been written about it). However, the situation we are able to encounter in BiH is specific for its triple reduction: firstly, the FBiH healthcare law which allowed refugees and migrants the access to the healthcare system has been suspended (of course, not through a democratic legislative procedure, but by secret “ad hoc” directive from above), secondly, primary health care has been replaced by casual and short-term humanitarian medical assistance, and thirdly, the humanitarian medical assistance has no mandate to actually treat the sick in accordance with their needs, but is there with the sole purpose of being present, formally staging over a period of several hours medical assistance where the majority of the diseases are treated with a paracetamol tablet and similar. Let us therefore look at the basic parameters of the right to health as defined by the WHO:

A-Availability

B-Accessibility (physical, economic, informative and non-discriminatory)

C-Acceptability (ethical, cultural and sexually sensitive)

D-Quality (safe, effective, human, timely, non-discriminatory, people-centered, integrated, efficient)

By reviewing these parameters, it becomes obvious that the right to health of refugees and migrants in BiH has practically been violated in full (partial exception is Potemkin's village in Hadžići) and that "humanitarian" organizations are only staging the medical assistance, probably to justify the millions of euros received with the number of paracetamol tablets issued.

Two more things need to be added here:

First of all, it should be mentioned, that the doctors in BiH, despite the very poor conditions in which they operate, have prepared themselves well for work with migrants. In May 2018, in accordance with FBiH law, the FBiH Public Health Institute issued detailed and highly competent medical instructions on the migration problem and health effects on the migrant population (as vulnerable groups) and the local population, guidelines for the formation of medical stations, instructions for the formation of migrant centers, instructions for the recruitment of doctors (among young and unemployed), etc. The “higher force” however did not permit that to be implemented. It should also be mentioned that up until June (when MSF appeared in the field) BiH's impoverished healthcare successfully carried out integrative treatment of migrants and refugees and kept the the public regularly informed about it. An apt example is the Health Center in Velika Kladuša; reports on the work of this institution with migrants are still available in local media. All of this has been stopped, suspended and turned into a large and staged humanitarian action that costs millions and de facto results in massive violation of human rights.

Secondly, all other provisions of Article 25 have either been denied or are insufficiently and inadequately provided. Accommodation of people is inadequate, food is sparse and of very poor quality (hundreds of people remain hungry after hours spent in line waiting for food every day), there is an insufficient number of showers (approx. 50% below standard), a large number of showers are not functioning and warm water is rare ... Together it paints a picture of determination (established policies) to violate human rights in order to establish a system which prevents life in camps for migrants and refugees.

  Dimitar Anakiev, dr. med
Photo: Boštjan Videmšek