Bosnian authorities have started moving some migrants and refugees stuck at a burnt out camp into heated tents, the United Nations said, as fresh snow and freezing weather added to the misery of people stranded in the Balkan country while trying to reach Western Europe.
Many migrants at the Lipa camp site were trying to warm up around fires while caught in a blizzard on Friday as authorities scrambled to finish setting up some 20 military tents meant to accommodate them.
Some migrants were not wearing socks or winter jackets as they waited to receive food parcels from aid groups.
Bosnia had faced international criticism for leaving some 1,000 migrants without shelter after a fire engulfed the squalid Lipa refugee camp near its northwest border with Croatia last month.
Authorities first said they would move the migrants to another location but this was cancelled after local residents organised protests.
The armed forces put up the new tents last week, but authorities said there had been delays in putting them to use.
The head of the International Organization for Migration in Bosnia, Peter Van der Auweraert, said on Twitter later Friday that some of the migrants would get sheltered Friday and the rest on Saturday.
Many migrants were staying in makeshift tents, in containers or under nylon covers put up in a wet and muddy field.
The migrants in Bosnia are mostly concentrated in the northwest of the Balkan country because the area borders European Union member Croatia.
Migrants have complained they often face pushbacks and violence in the hands of Croatia's police.
