More than 4 million refugees have entered Europe seeking asylum since 2015. They flee their homes in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other parts of North Africa and South Asia because of persecution, poverty, conflict, and violence that threatens their lives. Many are turned away upon arrival. In 2018, nearly 500,000 people were denied entry at the EU’s external borders.
Due to its geographic location right on the doorstep of the EU, tens of thousands of refugees are passing through Bosnia-Herzegovina on their way to attempt to gain entry into the EU. This has seen a steady stream of up to a few hundred refugees per week and sometimes more entering the country and often landing in Sarajevo. Refugees often stay for long periods of time and the situation leaves some residents feeling overwhelmed. It was only the mid-90’s when more than two million people were displaced from the war in their own country and many people have not been happy about the migrations through Bosnia. The government oversees the operation of refugee camps by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), but a lot of refugees cannot fit into the camps. Political divisions on the issue and related tensions also create challenges. International volunteer organizations have come in to provide help where others can’t or won’t, doing everything they can to help displaced persons here.
Organizations like Aid Brigade focus on providing humanitarian assistance to people in desperate need. In Sarajevo, Aid Brigade started with feeding refugees in April of 2018. They distributed food seven days a week, first once and later twice a day. They began in a park in the city centre and later, up until May of 2019, in a community center they transformed into a shelter. They were feeding up to 300 refugees per day and by the end of May 2019 had provided 120,000 meals. They also found places for families in need to keep them off the streets, offered legal support, and referred out particularly vulnerable cases to other agencies for help. Beginning in October of 2018, the organization began creating ‘pushback’ reports, documenting (often violent) pushbacks of refugees to Bosnia by Croatian and Slovenian police forces. The reports are used by Border Violence Monitoring to lobby against the illegal practice of deporting refugees without an asylum procedure.
The following month volunteers began creating activities for men, women, and children in a nearby refugee camp that ranged from sports to arts and crafts, and language education. That same month, Aid Brigade began offering support to refugees living in squats, providing insulation (as most had no windows or doors and the Sarajevo winters are frigidly cold), installing wood burning stoves, and delivering wood three times per week. In December of 2018 they distributed 600 winter jackets and sleeping bags in the Usivak refugee camp. The community center project in the photos below was started in January of 2019 to serve food indoors in a warm, hospitable place, and to provide daily shelter, activities, education, and psychological support. Beginning in March of 2019 volunteers also operated a medical clinic inside the center.
On May 22, 2019, approximately 20 armed Service for Foreigners Affairs and Bosnian police officers came to the community center and shut it down. They deported the foreign volunteers inside for reasons including ‘disturbing the peace’ and ‘providing assistance to migrants and refugees.’ Coordinator of the community center shelter Roos Ykema had the following to say, “Aid Brigade deeply regrets being closed down by Bosnian authorities and being unable to give refugees basic items for survival. All we did was provide food, medical help, and shelter, which is so important that it shouldn’t be compromised for political reasons. We have left Bosnia but continue to advocate for safe humane migration towards Europe.“
The photos below were shot on May 10, 2019, less than two weeks before the community center was shut down. They introduce some of the volunteers and refugees who were a part of the community center project together. These volunteers came from around the world to donate their time for no pay simply to help people in need.
Read Aid Brigade’s official statement on the shut down on the organization’s Facebook page here.
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Martin from Czech Republic handles door responsibilities today, patting down and searching all prior to entry.
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Rachida is from Tunisia and has been living in Sarajevo with her Bosnian husband for two years. She’s been volunteering at the center for six months. Rachida prepares Tunisian dishes for those in need in a large school bus parked in back of the center that’s been converted to an industrial kitchen. “[Simply] because they come here, we need to help them. They sleep in the streets, you know?”
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Nermin is a nurse from Bosnia who has worked with Aid Brigade for a year. “Helping people and getting to know people from different countries and cultures is my favorite thing.”
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Vedad is a Sarajevo native and volunteers at the center because “It makes you happy to volunteer.”
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Hanna is from London and has been with Aid Brigade in Sarajevo for eight months. She’s been volunteering since 2015, working with the homeless and underprivileged. “Inequality makes me really f*cking angry,” she said. “To see that when you’ve had so much… [That’s why I volunteer].”
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Martin began volunteering seven years ago while he was in college. He arrived in Sarajevo a week before this photo was taken and plans to stay for three months.
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Mostafa is also from Iran and is a design carpenter. He left Iran because he couldn’t get paid a decent wage for his work. He has been is Sarajevo since December of 2018 and has no passport, although he does have an iPhone and an Instagram account. He’s been fortunate to get some work trades for food and lodging in the city. He plans to head for the UK, the Netherlands, or Spain to seek refuge.
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Sanin is a Bosnian native from Sarajevo who has been volunteering for three months. Sanin loves working in the kitchen.
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Fahad is from the Philippines and was educated in Turkey beginning at age 13 as a boarding student. He originally planned to volunteer for a week or two and that was six months ago. “Helping people is the best thing ever,” he says.
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Francesco is from northeast of Venice, Italy. Initially, he came to volunteer with Aid Brigade for three weeks and has stayed on for thirteen months so far. He was working in a refugee camp in Serbia prior to being in Sarajevo. He loves doing something good for people and traveling. Francesco lives in the Fiat Decato van that he purchased recently and is renovating.
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Rachida prepares couscous for two hundred.
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There’s a powerful camaraderie amongst the volunteers that’s easy to feel when spending time with them.
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Roos is from the Netherlands and has been the coordinator of this location for eight months, coordinating ‘generally everything.’ She began volunteering at age 14 when she became a youth ambassador for an ngo and has worked in many different countries, Jordan, the Netherlands, and Greece, to name a few. The other volunteers have an immense amount of respect for Roos and longtime international aid and volunteer Tim Clancy says simply, “She’s amazing.”
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Joao is from Portugal and has been volunteering in Sarajevo for a year and two months. He originally began volunteering in November of 2015 due to the huge surge of refugees seeking asylum in Europe. In ‘real life’ Joao is a pharmacist, and he volunteers because along with travel, it’s one of his favorite things.
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Hanna is from London and has been with Aid Brigade in Sarajevo for eight months. She’s been volunteering since 2015, working with the homeless and underprivileged. “Inequality makes me really f*cking angry,” she said. “To see that when you’ve had so much… [That’s why I volunteer].”
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Ramsey is from the United States and first came to Bosnia to volunteer in the early 1990’s, working with in refugee camps during the war. She returned to Sarajevo again this spring to contribute. In addition to helping in the camps in way that’s needed, Ramsey teaches also women and girls self defense.
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