As increasing numbers of migrants get stranded in a Bosnian border town after failing to cross into Croatia, they are left to depend on the kindness of strangers for help. Among them is Husein Karajic, who has helped more than a hundred migrants by offering them shelter and food in his home in Velika Kladusa.

The number of Middle Eastern migrants passing through Bosnia on their way to Western European countries is increasing almost daily. Authorities in Bosnia, a country that is already heavily criticised by the international community for its inefficient public administration, are not prepared to handle this challenge.

So with very little in the way of the country’s immigrant services, it is up to individuals like Husein Karajic to help. He took this task upon himself, extending a helping hand to those who need it the most.

Karajic lives in Velika Kladusa, a town near Bosnia’s northeastern border with Croatia, the first European Union country on the migrants’ route towards western Europe, and where they often end up in the hands of the Croatian border police before being sent back to Bosnia, with some going back and forth several times.

N1 visited Velika Kladusa and witnessed entire families of migrants who found temporary refuge in the homes of locals, including a group of Syrian boys who had fled from the war in their country. Since leaving Syria about two years ago, they have been fighting their battle to build a better life for themselves in Western Europe. With blistered feet and without proper shelter, they plan to make another attempt to cross the Croatian border soon.

N1 reporters also found 14 migrants occupying an abandoned factory hall in Velika Kladusa, as it offered much better shelter compared to sleeping in public in park benches, surviving on food given to them by compassionate locals. One of them is a man from Pakistan who had been caught several times as he tried to enter the EU.

“All of the people in Bosnia and Herzegovina are good. They help us a lot, police here is good towards us, but we have a lot of problems with the Croatian police,” he said. “They sent me back three times. I left Pakistan because there I have nothing.”

Locals told N1 that neither authorities nor humanitarian organisations are doing anything about the increasing numbers of migrants stranded in Velika Kladusa.

But Karajic’s home has served as a place of shelter to more than 100 of these people over the past two and a half months. Many of them have moved on, but most have not forgotten Karajic and his hospitality. Karajic said the ones who left sometimes phone him, just to let him know whether they have made it.

But Karajic cannot take in any more migrants, and his resources to support them during their stay are wearing thin.

“The institutions are doing nothing, but ordinary people, like my friends, have helped,” he said, adding that those who have little themselves were the first to help, while the locals who are better off have not. “They did not open up their hearts, even though this (being a stranded migrant) could happen to anyone,” he said.

Dozens of migrants can now be found wandering the streets of Velika Kladusa. They sit in the local park and plan their next move, hoping that eventually they might make it to a better place.

“I would like to send a message. Angela Merkel, if you can hear me, please, open up the borders, we cannot go on like this anymore,” a migrant from Algeria told N1.

“My family is in Germany. I am also sending a message to Croatia, we don’t want to stay in your country, we just want to pass through, and go on further (west),” he added.