Some 130 migrant children from Bihac area to start attending school

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Some 130 migrant children from the territory of the northern town of Bihac will start attending school from the second semester of this school year, said Adna Kreso from the Una-Sana Canton’s Education Ministry.

We’ll follow the example of some other countries that started dealing with the migrant crisis much earlier than we did, and so we too will start the detraumatization process. Slowly, we’ll introduce these children into our education system, and depending on their stay in the country, they would be able to attend regular class,” Kreso said.

He added that Cazin and Bihac health care facilities are finalising health checks of these children and the teachers who will work with them have undergone additional training.

According to him, four schools that are relatively close to three migrant centres from the Bihac and Cazin area will be involved in this first phase of their education process.

All the expenses will be covered by the UNHCR, the International Organisation for Migrations and the Save the Children Organisation.

Official estimates say that over 23,000 migrants entered Bosnia since the beginning of the year, hoping to move to the European Union (EU). An estimate of 5,300 are trapped in the country, staying mostly near the border with Croatia, which bans the migrants from entering.

Some migrants are accommodated in centres, formed by the foreign and local humanitarian agencies, but some are still living in abandoned buildings, improvised tent camps, facing serious threats of low air temperatures that may go as low as -15 Celsius.