While EU and its members states under the influence of the rise of nationalist, anti EU and anti migration political forces are applying ever more restrictive and repressive asylum and border policies, Bosnia and Herzegovina deals with increasing number of refugees and migrants stranded on its territory.
The reports on humanitarian situation of refugees and migrants are discouraging and those on police violence on the EU borders alarming, the antagonism between local population and peop le crossing the country and trying to reach EU is growing due to poor management of the situation by authorities, and migrants are increasingly becoming the tool to deepen divisions in society and to accentuate disintegration tendencies. Inefficiency of lo cal and state authorities leads to strengthening of local antagonisms while ethnonationalisms use the situation for further ethnical polarization and legitimation of politics of fear.
For those reasons , Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Sarajevo, together with Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana and Heinrich Böll Stiftung Bosnia and Herzegovina are organizing two days event in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo and Velika Kladuša) in which we would like to exchange analysis, perspectives and ideas of scholars that research on Balkan route, solidarity activists, refugees and migrants stranded in Bosnia and Herzegovina and members of European parliament or candidates for European elections. With the event we would like to contribute to understanding of so called Balkan Route in local public, to intervene into agenda of public discussions before coming European elections and to promote exchange between ex perts and solidarity activists working along Balkan Route and European policy makers. Main project goals are to include scholars and human rights activists in the scholar network that connects researchers and various experts working on Balkan Route; to inf orm European public about the situation on Balkan Route, to put situation on Balkan Route in BiH into broader European context for Bosnian public; to show solidarity with local citizens and civil society organizations that act in solidarity with refugees a nd migrants on the route; to establish connections between scholars, civil society activists, BiH and European policy makers that is going to allow further collaboration in analyzing situation and defining proposals for policy makers.
