Hundreds of migrants in Bosnian camp living in dismal conditions

Children and the elderly crammed in with no running water or electricity as winter approaches

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  A makeshift tent at a camp housing migrants, mostly from Afghanistan, in Velika Kladusa, Bosnia. All photos: AP Photo

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  Hundreds of migrants, including children, babies and elderly people, set up improvised camps in northwest Bosnia.

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  Locals say the camp has grown in the past few weeks. There is no running water, lavatories, showers or electricity, and a freezing Bosnian winter is approaching.

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  Huse, a local Bosnian, distributes hot food to people at the camp.

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  Aid workers say the migrants refuse to move into official camps so they are able to keep as close to the Croatian border as possible.

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  Migrant children play a game of marbles.

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  Some of the shelters are no more than sticks covered with nylon sheeting. The settlement is in a muddy field near the town of Velika Kladusa.

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  Morning ablutions on a foggy day at the camp.

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  Some of the people at the camp have tried to illegally enter Croatia dozens of times only to be turned back by Croatian police. AP Photo

Hundreds of migrants, including small children and the elderly, are camped out in abysmal conditions in north-west Bosnia, only kilometres away from EU member Croatia.

While there are various informal settlements dotted around the region, the makeshift camp on a muddy field near the town of Velika Kladusa is believed to have been set up in recent weeks.

There are official, more organised camps in the area but many migrants prefer to stay as close as they can to the Croatian border – where they say they are sometimes repelled violently by security officials.

There is no running water, lavatories, showers or electricity and a freezing Bosnian winter is fast approaching. Some of the makeshift shelters amount to no more than sticks covered by nylon sheeting.

Enver Hafuric, from the SOS aid group – which was distributing medical supplies and warm meals – said appeals for parents living in the field to bring their children to official camps had failed.

“They want to be closer to the border, they want to go [away] from here, they want to go to the countries of the European Union,” he told AP.