Bosnia and Herzegovina's treatment of detained migrants should raise concerns for governments considering sending additional migrants to the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Processing delays, limited access to lawyers, and concerns over conditions and access to services have placed migrants at risk.
The UK government proposed Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with Serbia and Albania, as potential Balkans locations for a return hub. Asylum seekers from other countries whose claims had been rejected would be sent there while arrangements would be made to return them to their countries of origin or other third countries.
"Prolonged detention of migrants without adequate safeguards puts people at risk of rights violations," said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Adding rejected asylum seekers from the UK, or potentially the EU, to Bosnia's already troubling detention system would only exacerbate existing issues and worsen abuses."
The European Commission has also proposed establishing return hubs in as yet unspecified locations outside the European Union to facilitate returns of people ordered to leave the EU. The Commission also proposed making it easier for EU countries to send asylum seekers to countries outside the EU designated as "safe" for the processing of their asylum claims. Outsourcing responsibility for migrants and asylum seekers is inherently problematic, Human Rights Watch said.
In April 2025, Human Rights Watch spent two weeks in Bosnia researching the situation for migrants and asylum seekers. During a visit to a detention center for migrants in Lukavica, near Sarajevo, Human Rights Watch found delays in processing returns of rejected asylum seekers, including those readmitted from the EU, as well as those held on national security and criminal grounds, leading in some cases to prolonged detention, up to a maximum of 18 months.
Human Rights Watch was able to visit the center, but staff controlled the visit, and researchers were unable to speak privately to detainees. Detention center staff told Human Rights Watch that detainees' conditions are good, with regular exercise, and access to fresh air. However, the legal aid organization Vasa Prava BiH - the only nongovernmental group with access - told Human Rights Watch they received reports from detainees that paint a different picture, especially about regular time outside.
While people in the detention center should have access to legal advice, in practice access is restricted by detention centre staff, Vasa Prava BiH said. No counselling service is available for people in detention with mental health needs.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bosnia told Human Rights Watch it had raised concerns around transparency and accountability in detention with the country's Ombudsman's office and urged the office to produce an official report on detention conditions. The office has yet to do so.
Officials from the Service for Foreigners' Affairs, which operates immigration detention facilities in Bosnia, told Human Rights Watch that migrants and asylum seekers are generally detained on national security grounds, some on criminal charges, or when there is a good chance for forced repatriation or readmission to the previous country of entry, primarily Serbia.
