The topic of migrations, and the intrinsically linked topic of people on the move, is a particularly timely one in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in the regional and the world. For over five years, the region has been faced with what can only be described as a crisis: hundreds of thousands of people from North Africa, Southwestern Asia, and Southeastern Asia moving westward through the region, staying for months on end in tepid conditions and subject to various pressures. Bosnia and Herzegovina has become a chokepoint, as people on the move queue at its western borders and await an opportunity to continue their journey westward.
Policy makers, local communities, and humanitarian actors face challenges and dilemmas regarding containment, facilitation, and protection. Simultaneously, those moving through the region encounter complexity at every level and with various actors from origin, while in transit, and at destination. Similar to natural disasters, migratory flows such as this one affects all those in their path. While the region is affected across borders, there is a lack of regional coordination in policy and humanitarian responses. Creating a critical space for reflection to increase collaboration and understand current approaches with policy makers, civil society actors, and humanitarians is crucial as migration will continue and are expected to intensify.
Therefore, the Social Sciences Research Center with the Center of Comeptence in Humanitarian Negotiation and Harvard University is organizing the first annual and first in Bosnia and Herzegovina international scientific Conference on Migrations. Partners supporting and sponsoring the Conference include the Delegation of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Foreign Policy Initiative, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Mission of the International Organization for Migrations to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in European to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Swiss Embassy to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
