Two Bosnian police officers injured in riot at migrant centre near Sarajevo

Local police said that several police officers who arrived on the scene to restore order at the Blazuj holding centre had been injured in the mass brawl. Police vehicles were also reportedly damaged by rioters.

They added that the riot started after officials of the humanitarian group International Organisation for Migrations (IOM) arrived at the camp to transfer one of the migrants who had been previously identified as a troublemaker at Blazuj.

“The migrant is actually the leader of one of the groups in this camp. (Other) migrants tried to set him free (from custody), which then led to the conflict,” said police spokesperson, Mirza Hadziabdic.

In recent years Bosnia became a popular stop on the so-called Balkan route used by illegal migrants. Mostly originating from the Middle East, they spend months travelling via land routes through Turkey, Greece, Albania, and Bosnia in the hopes of reaching wealthier countries in Western Europe.

Estimates say that some 7,000-9,000 migrants are currently in Bosnia, with two thirds of them housed at asylum centres set up in northwest Bosnia near the border with Croatia and around Sarajevo. Others are thought to be homeless, living in abandoned factories and scattered around the forested area bordering Croatia.