VELIKA KLADUSA, Bosnia: Hundreds of migrants hoping to reach the European Union are sheltering in forests and ruined former factory buildings near Bosnia’s border with Croatia, with the cold setting in and conditions becoming more miserable.
On a cold Wednesday morning, migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Morocco and Algiers shivered in their makeshift tent camp high in the woods above the town of Velika Kladusa, built of cardboard and tree branches and covered with nylon sheets.
Some set up fires to warm up and cook modest meals. Others washed themselves and their clothes in a freezing forest stream, and brushed their teeth with ashes.
As the EU attempts to overhaul its defunct migration policies, thousands of people fleeing Asia, the Middle East and Africa are stranded on the fringe of the wealthy bloc, trying and often failing to enter and continue their journey.
Migrants and refugees mostly bypassed impoverished Bosnia during their mass movements across the Balkans in 2015-2016, but in recent years the country has become a key transit route after EU countries closed their borders to new arrivals.
“[There are] many problems here,” said Mahmood Abal from Bangladesh. “No rooms, no water, no medical facilities, no sanitation.”
He is one of about 500 men who were turned away from the Bosnian towns of Bihac and Velika Kladusa. Authorities are refusing to host large groups of migrants any longer and are preparing to close down some reception centers.
Sympathetic at first to the plight of the migrants, similar to their own during the war in the 1990s when they were forced to flee, Bosnians in the Krajina border region have become anxious, demanding that other regions share the burden.
But in ethnically-divided Bosnia, the Serb and Croat-dominated regions refuse to accept migrants, and so they concentrate in the Bosniak-dominated Sarajevo and Krajina.
Most migrants are smuggled to Bosnia in rubber boats over the Drina River, the natural border with Serbia, said Azur Sljivic, a Bosnian border police officer.
“Many of them drown because the Drina River is unpredictable, full of whirlpools,” Sljivic told Reuters while patrolling along the border in the eastern town of Zvornik.
Yet they do not give up.
On Tuesday night, about 50 migrants left their Bosnian forest tents to try cross the Croatian border.
“Italy, see you soon!,” one of them shouted cheerfully.
Migrants hoping to reach EU stranded in Bosnian woods as cold sets in
https://arab.news/wcbd6
Migrants hoping to reach EU stranded in Bosnian woods as cold sets in
- As the EU attempts to overhaul its defunct migration policies, thousands of people fleeing Asia, the Middle East and Africa are stranded on the fringe of the wealthy bloc
- In ethnically-divided Bosnia, the Serb and Croat-dominated regions refuse to accept migrants, and so they concentrate in the Bosniak-dominated Sarajevo and Krajina
UK cyclists to ride 550km in Saudi Arabia to save children with heart defects
- The H&K Cycle Club was the first team to take the Hejaz route, and their endeavour has since 2022 inspired hundreds of other cyclists to follow suit
- The cyclists expect to face scorching heat, brutal headwinds, sandstorms, and long no-U-turn stretches of roads, along with physical and mental exhaustion
LONDON: A cycling team from London set out on Sunday on a 550km journey from Makkah to Madinah in Saudi Arabia to raise funds for children in developing countries with congenital heart defects.
This is the fifth year that Shamsul Abdin, the head of the H&K Cycle Club, and 40 riders aged between 18 and 65, are taking on the challenge through the Hejaz region.
Abdin told Arab News that the “Hijrah Ride” was a replication of the journey made by Prophet Muhammad over 1,400 years ago, when he migrated from Makkah to Madinah, where he established the first city-state of Islam. This migration, known as Hijrah, also marked the beginning of the Islamic Hijri calendar.
The H&K Cycle Club has expanded from just six riders 14 years ago to more than 40 members from various cities across the UK, including London, Manchester, Oxford, and Birmingham. In November, they began their training in the freezing temperatures of the UK, aiming to cycle over 100 kilometers each day within 6 to 7 hours for a 4-day ride in Saudi Arabia. On Wednesday, they are expected to arrive in Madinah.
They have cycled throughout the UK and parts of Europe, riding from London to Istanbul to raise funds for various causes through Muntada Aid, a charity that works on projects in developing countries and organizes the “Hijrah Ride”.
They were also the first cycling team to take the Hejaz route, and their endeavour has since inspired hundreds of other cyclists to follow suit. Abdin has seen Saudi Arabia become more bike-friendly over the past five years, with cycling lanes integrated into city development, while drivers, locals, and authorities are now more aware of cyclists on the roads.
The cyclists expect to face scorching heat, brutal headwinds, sandstorms, and long no-U-turn stretches of roads, along with physical and mental exhaustion. For many riders, this will be their fifth ride in Hejaz. Some of them include Uber and bus drivers, business analysts, and even entrepreneurs, according to Abdin.
“The headwind feels like climbing a mountain; it’s a constant resistance. To overcome this challenge, we ride in a peloton, taking turns at the front. One person heads into the wind while the others line up behind, shielded from the gusts. After a while, we rotate, allowing everyone a chance to lead,” Abdin explained.
Almost £923,000 has been raised by the “Hijrah Ride” since its inception, to reach a target of one million pounds this year. Some of the money went into emergency aid programs in Gaza and Sudan. Muntada Aid aims to raise about £250,000 for its flagship project, “Little Hearts,” which will fund 150 surgeries for children with congenital heart defects in Pakistan and Bangladesh this year.
“I fell in love with this project, which gives children the opportunity to live up to their potential as adults, truly,” said Abdin, who was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in December for his contribution to charitable fundraising.
The riders will be escorted by two vehicles, one in front and one in the rear, carrying paramedics and media staff, along with food and water. They will split into two groups based on their cycling powers. Along the route, they will pass several locations, including Jeddah on the Red Sea, King Abdullah Economic City, Rabigh, Masturah, and Badr, before reaching the elevated roads of Madinah, where their journey, which started with performing Umrah in Makkah, will end.
Muntada Aid is a part of Al-Muntada Trust, which was founded in 1986 by a group of Middle Eastern students, including individuals from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to address the famine crisis in Ethiopia. Since then, the organization has assisted children in 17 countries, including Somalia, Sudan, Chad, Kosovo, Bosnia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mali, and Niger. They focus on developing infrastructure in education, health, water and sanitation sectors.
Nasrun Mir, the marketing director of Muntada Aid, told Arab News that they support “Hijrah Ride” with financial backing and logistics, and that they have obtained permits through communication with the Saudi Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Saudi embassy in London, and the British Consulate in Jeddah.
Mir, who is joining the journey as part of the media team this week, said that the reception in Saudi Arabia could not be friendlier.
“People offer us free food and drinks. They want to have conversations with us. They want to know what we do. In the Middle East, there is still no concept of using sports as a tool for charity. The general idea is that if I want to give money to the charity, I’ll give it to them. You don’t need to run. You don’t need to cycle,” Mir said.
In one incident, a local community prevented the riders from passing through their village unless they disembarked and sat down to eat with them. In particular sections of the road near Madinah, a Saudi police vehicle has escorted the riders for a few kilometers, he added.
“There have been incidents where people have stopped us from eating our own food during the break. They literally took our food and said, ‘No, you come to our village; you cannot eat your food. You have to have food, which we will prepare.’ This delayed ride for a couple of hours,” Mir said.
