Rights advocates raise concern over migrants’ rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina amid ‘return hub’ plan News
Dans, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Rights advocates raise concern over migrants’ rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina amid ‘return hub’ plan

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a statement highlighting concerning conditions of migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the UK government proposed that the country serve as a “return hub.” Return hubs are locations where asylum seekers whose claims had been rejected in other countries would be held while waiting to be returned to their countries of origin.

Europe and Central Asia director at HRW, Hugh Williamson, noted Bosnia’s “already troubling” detention system and expressed concern over its ability to uphold the rights of the migrants with a potential increase of rejected asylum seekers from the UK.

HRW’s statement begins by noting the group’s investigation into the conditions of migrants in Bosnia in April 2025. HRW reported delays in processing returns of rejected asylum seekers, leading to prolonged detention. While HRW was able to visit the detention center, they were unable to interview the detainees privately, and reassurances of conditions provided by the staff of the center were later rebutted by a nongovernmental legal aid organization, Vasa Prava BiH. The organization stated that no counseling services are available to people with mental health needs, many detainees do not understand that they are entitled to free legal aid, and oftentimes, the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs does not disclose details of charges to detainees or their lawyers.

Collective submission from July 2024 by rights groups and organizations expressed concerns about conditions of detention facilities; according to reports, detainees are denied access to their phones, and are not informed about free legal aid, asylum procedures, and interpretation services. Additionally, the submission critiqued Bosnia’s detention of children in immigration centers despite it being a violation of Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

According to a UNHCR report from April 2025 on asylum seekers in Bosnia, the average processing time, while slowly decreasing over the years, remains alarming, 282 days. HRW’s statement highlighted that while waiting for a decision, asylum seekers are “essentially without rights, and can only legally seek employment nine months after registering.”

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