Matt Field: You are not alone!

By Matt Field, UK Ambassador to BiH

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Last week I visited the Una-Sana Canton to see what the United Kingdom has done in that canton in providing support to local communities. By chance, that day was the Norwuz holiday, so during a visit to one of the temporary accommodation sites for migrant families, I had the opportunity to join the celebration of the Persian New Year, marked with a lot of color and wonderful music.

From meetings with local government representatives, including the canton's prime minister and several mayors, I understood the magnitude of the challenges facing the Una-Sana Canton. By chance, due to its geographical location and decisions made elsewhere, they found themselves facing a large number of migrants in transit, including unaccompanied minors and parents with children, trying to reach European Union countries.

In a situation where hundreds of people arrived, and a large number of them slept outdoors in parks or at the football stadium, the citizens of that area responded with generosity and compassion – perhaps because many of them had also experienced leaving their homes in difficult circumstances. Food, blankets, and other practical support were immediately provided. Local services did their best, but in most cases, the situation exceeded their capabilities. And the constant drop in temperature required urgent action.

The Prime Minister of the Una-Sana Canton, who took office only in October, told me that overnight, or rather, in the short period of six months, he had to become an expert on migration issues. As elsewhere, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was among the first to help, coordinating existing and new support options. Together with local authorities, they focused on providing accommodation for migrants, so they would not stay in parks and tents, but in public buildings adapted for their accommodation. I personally saw that, thanks to the hard work of many people, all migrants were housed in safe and clean buildings, and had access to social services, as well as education.

While more significant actors plan long-term support, especially the EU, which allocated 9.2 million euros to BiH last year and 13 million euros this year for food, clothing, blankets, hygiene items, protection, and emergency accommodation, the United Kingdom has invested 565,000 pounds (1.2 million KM) in projects supported by the citizens of that area, because they were the ones who felt the greatest burden of migration. With this money, we managed to clean the park and repair memorial plaques, repair public lighting, provide new sanitary equipment, renovate the stadium, and support smaller projects that strengthen community ties through music and culture.

One of the most beautiful moments of the visit was when I saw migrant families joining the football training at the NK Jedinstvo field and using the global language of sport to communicate with the local population. In addition, it was great to see how the youth of Cazin, involved in another project funded by the United Kingdom, presented their own socially useful projects through a film quiz – they read in my biography that I like films, so they wanted to test my knowledge.

But I also realized that interventions and projects like ours are, at best, only a partial solution. Citizens in the Una-Sana Canton feel left to their own devices, fighting alone against a problem that is only passing through their canton, and they welcomed our projects because we told them, in this way, "you are not alone." And what they really need is much greater support from the rest of the country, from state and entity governments, to respond to the challenges they face, from financial to human resources.

I left with a strong impression of this message from the citizens – we cannot solve this problem alone, especially since the number of migrants will increase with the good weather. The good people of the Una-Sana Canton are already doing their best. All of us, but especially the other levels of government in BiH, should do everything in our power to help them.