Emergency in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Fleeing Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan, thousands of people wanting to seek asylum in Europe have been trapped in North-East Bosnia-Herzegovina since the construction of an anti-migrant border barrier three years ago by Hungary and increased security along the border with Croatia.

Their already very difficult living conditions (they are the victims of violence perpetrated by some of the population and the police, coupled with a lack of accommodation) were worsened by the advent of winter and the fire that gutted the ramshackle Lipa refugee camp.

Thousands of people, including unaccompanied minors, are wandering around in search of makeshift shelter. There is a cruel lack of food, sleeping bags, clothing and footwear suitable for the cold winter weather.

The EU is funding the country to detain the migrants but is doing nothing to receive them and enable them to claim asylum.

The Emmaus Movement has been working in Bosnia-Herzegovina for over 20 years. ISF-Emmaus is providing the migrants with food and material aid in Tuzla and Velika Kaldusa, as well as running a day centre in Tuzla. The group recently set up a centre for 160 unaccompanied minors in Doboj Istok and they are handing out food to 1,200 people from the fire-ravaged Lipa refugee camp.

As the situation is becoming increasingly unsustainable, a fundraising appeal to support local organisations is being launched to reaffirm the values of humanity, shelter and support, and sharing that underpin our work. Emmaus Italy is centralising the donations to help them during these difficult winter months. If you wish to support the work of Emmaus in Bosnia-Herzegovina, you can make a donation by bank transfer to Emmaus Italy’s account:

Emmaus Italia
Iban: IT 13 U 05018 02800 000015118102
Reference: Emergenza Bosnia

70% of the donations received are transferred to FIS-Emmaüs. The remaining 30% is transferred toRivolti ai Barcani, a network with close links to Emmaus, and bringing together various organisations working on the Balkans Route to distribute essential items and defend migrant rights.

Bosnia Herzegovina Defending human rights / Migration News

Emmaus Alternatives: Solidarity Lockers for the Homeless

Emmaus Alternatives set up the first system of solidarity lockers for the homeless in all of France. The group worked alongside the authorities in Montreuil (near Paris) and Portuguese association ACA (which started off this scheme in Portugal) to install 12 lockers in October 2018 before adding another 12 in November 2020.

Set up in a public area these designer lockers are available to the homeless 24/7 as long as they have their key. This scheme meets a key need for these people: to have a safe space to store their belongings. The agreement which each member of the scheme includes a weekly meeting to provide social support with a view to getting them reintegrated in society.

This project doesn’t keep people on the streets, it helps to get them off the streets and to reintegrate them in society. The solidarity lockers help meet a fundamental need but the social support and the social bond that is created thanks to the scheme start these homeless people off on a journey which, little by little, will lead them away from the streets.

The solidarity locker scheme was first launched in 2015 in Lisbon following conversations between volunteers from ACA and homeless people in the city. They outlined that it was a daily struggle to prevent their money, documents, clothes and objects which have a sentimental value from being stolen. They needed a safe place to store their belongings.

After spending a long time working on the design with a local company the first solidarity lockers were set up in Lisbon in 2015. In 2018 60 lockers were made available to homeless people as long as they signed an agreement to meet with a social worker once a week. The results of this initiative have been impressive: over two thirds of the people to have left the scheme did so because they found a job or housing or because they joined a rehab centre or a reintegration community.

This simple, fast-acting initiative has been added to the other initiatives led by Emmaus Alternatives since 1991, helping the homeless and those isolated from the job market to access their rights and to find employment. Emmaus Alternatives also strives to make public spaces more welcoming to those who are suffering from exclusion.

To find out more have a look at their website: www.emmaus-alternatives.fr

France News Tackling Poverty / Solidarity

Emmaus in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Extracts from an interview with Sabina Arnaut-Jahic, national delegate for Bosnia-Herzegovina on the Regional Council of Emmaus Europe.

Can you tell us about how Emmaus began in Bosnia-Herzegovina?

Emmaus was born in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the context of the former Yugoslavia breakup and the consequences of the 1992-1995 war. In this time, the situation was extremely difficult and unstable for everybody in the country. In 1993, the humanitarian organization “Red Crescent” started to work in order to open public kitchen and distribute modest meals to the people.

Abroad, a large number of organizations wanted to help the population of Bosnia-Herzegovina during the war, and one of them was Emmaus International led by Franco Bettoli. They started delivering convoys of aid with food, medicines and other necessities to Tuzla municipality and to do so, they needed a local humanitarian organization to help them over the distribution of aid. That’s how Emmaus International and the Red Crescent started to work together, with an intensive assistance to refugees.

The activists and enthusiasts working in this partnership developed the idea of establishing an association dealing with “Emmaus” activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The founding assembly of the humanitarian organization “International Forum of Solidarity – Emmaus” was held on February 10, 1999, with the aim of providing assistance to all vulnerable categories of the population who need help. They defined their mission as “to create, support and vivify resources in which everyone, by being free and respected can fulfil their needs and show mutual solidarity” and their vision as “to act so that every man, every society, every nation can live, demonstrate and achieve trough exchange and share in equal dignity!”

Today, Bosnia-Herzegovina has two Emmaus groups, one full member and one trial member.

What activities/initiatives are led by Emmaus in Bosnia-Herzegovina today?

Emmaus groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina implement many activities in the whole country. The groups lead several humanitarian actions to help the most vulnerable people, such as the daily distribution of meals that prepares over 3,500 meals a day in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the direct support to the people who were deeply affected by the war (especially with the loss of their families), or the accommodation of old and helpless people and persons with mental disorders or with disabilities.

One special expertise of the Emmaus groups of Bosnia-Herzegovina is the assistance to the children in diverse ways. Several day care centres welcome children in the country and give them a safe environment to live and a better access to school. This includes support and care to the children’s families. The groups also run services to prevent violence against the children, with hotlines and awareness on safe use of internet.

The groups are also involved in the help to refugees, in Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as abroad. They run a very important centre for the prevention of human trafficking, and also lead several solidarity initiatives in the world, with partners in Africa and Asia.

How have things been going since the health crisis and how did you adapt to the situation?

The Emmaus groups of Bosnia-Herzegovina were very involved in facing the crisis consequences. They developed their distribution of food and sanitary products in areas where no support were in place, and gave medical equipment to health care institutions. The violence against the children rose during this time and many more people used the phone services.

With their good experience of emergency situation, the groups were able to respond quite well, hiring more people to run the emergency solidarity initiatives, adapting all possible activities online and developing new online/phone support services to prevent violence and psychological consequences of the crisis.

What challenges are the groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina facing at the moment?

One special challenge at the moment is the situation of the refugees in the country. Since the beginning of 2018, Bosnia and Herzegovina has experienced a drastic increase in the number of migrants entering the country. Research has shown that migrants in Bosnia-Herzegovina have spent an average of about two years on the road, and some have been on the move for six years. In Una-Sana Canton, main destination for migrants in BH, the reception centres are full, migrants have been living in factory halls for two years and an estimated 7,000 people would be fighting outside the camps. Due to the pandemic and the decrease of available help, an increasing number of migrants do not have food, clothing, footwear and basic hygiene conditions because they mostly live in abandoned buildings or in forests.

In this context, IFS-Emmaus provides one facility as a day centre in Tuzla, where migrants have the opportunity to take a shower, get new clean clothes and eat and rest for a short time. In addition, activities related to the distribution of warm meals will continue, as well as the emergency distribution of non-food items for those on the street. In addition, on October 16, 2020 the group signed the Protocol for the accommodation of unaccompanied minor foreigners who have expressed an intention to seek asylum and unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers in the Centre for Children and Youth in Doboj Istok, with government and other relevant organizations that are involved in process of support aforementioned categories. The accommodation started in mid-November 2020.

Bosnia Herzegovina News

Emmaus Connect: Fighting against Digital Exclusion

The idea came from an Emmaus group in Paris due to the situation of people in street situations, of people who are poorly housed and/or of people without bank accounts who have to spend huge sums on prepaid cards to be able to get on the Internet.

In France, like in many other European countries, the majority of services related to employment are now only available in a digital form: you need to have Internet access to be able to renew your unemployment benefits or your residence permit. Given that these people are unable to get a long-term subscription it is expensive for them to get online. Furthermore, 24% of French people don’t know how to find information online. This affects the most excluded as well as social workers who have to spend a lot of time helping people to use the Internet for their administrative needs despite never having been trained in how to do this.

In 2013 Emmaus Connect was created and it now has 13 welcome points in France powered by over 500 volunteers.

Thanks to a partnership with a French telecommunications company the group received donations of prepaid telephone and Internet cards which they sell on at low prices to the people sent to them by social workers. Emmaus Connect also provides support to help these people become digitally independent – over 30,000 people have been given such support since 2013.

The group collects IT and telephone equipment from companies and selling this on at low prices helps to finance the support provided to people who need to learn how to use digital tools for work or for admin purposes.

Whenever they receive donated equipment that needs to be repaired Emmaus Connect teams up with Ateliers du Bocage, another Emmaus group which helps people to get back to work by training them to repair IT equipment. During the first, very strict lockdown in France the two groups worked together to equip students and teenagers who were forced to study from home but didn’t have enough money to buy new equipment. They provided equipment to 20,000 people in 1 month.

Now Emmaus Connect is launching a training course for social workers so that they can serve as intermediaries and help to increase the level of digital inclusion in France.

Has this inspired you?

You can find out more at: https://emmaus-connect.org

France News Tackling Poverty / Solidarity