Mays checks to make sure that no one is looking and discretely lifts up her black sweater to start nursing her six-month-old baby, Régine. This young mother is perched on the edge of a fountain in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. She is one of the only women in front of the city’s main train station.

She is also one of the only Syrians here. Most of the 3,500 migrants in Bosnia are Pakistani, Afghan, Iranian, Moroccan or Algerian.

Another Syrian couple, Abdallah and Isra, watch over their two small children. The oldest, Kaïs, runs around mischievously. The second, Maria, sleeps in Abdallah’s arms.

It is 8 pm and the families get ready to go to a nearby park where they will spend the night. They don’t have tents, even though it looks like a storm is brewing.

Abdallah and his friends don’t want to seek additional protection. For them and most of the other migrants in the country, Bosnia is just one stop on a long journey.

"97 percent of migrants who arrive on Bosnian soil want to leave again,” says Peter Van Der Auweraert, the head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Bosnia.

"Pushing them to apply for asylum isn’t worth it,” says Van Der Auweraert. “What we need is to develop reception centers.”

This would meet the basic needs of migrants during their stay in Bosnia. Since the beginning of year, only 600 people have requested asylum in the country, according to the IOM.

Empty reception centers

However, these Syrian families and their fellow migrants say that going to a reception center isn’t an option. The only two reception centers for asylum seekers are in Salakovac and Delijas - they are mostly empty. While there are an estimated 3,500 migrants in Bosnia, Admir Malagic, the spokesperson for the Security Minister told InfoMigrants that there were only about 120 people living in Salakovac and a further 70 in Delijas.

When migrants enter Bosnia, they are given a document (which they can renew several times) authorizing them to stay in the country for 15 days. It also gives them access to the these reception centers.

But none of the Syrian migrants that InfoMigrants encountered knew about these centers.

Barakat has the paper but has no idea what it means.

“What’s this for, exactly?” he asked, getting it out of his pocket.

"Is it a paper to be deported?” ask two other migrants standing in front of a mosque.

Van Der Auweraert says the state is struggling to get the information out there.

"The government was late to the table on the migration topic, but they are trying to make up for it,” he says. “With this document, migrants can go without fear to a reception center and have a bed, healthcare and food at any point while they are in Bosnia.”

'They went through a war, they understand'

InfoMigrants met other migrants in Sarajevo who were also carrying the document. However, they all refused to go to the reception centers. It’s too far, they said.

It’s true that both Salakovac and Delijas are about two hours by car south of Sarajevo. Most migrants prefer to stay in the capital so they can organize the rest of their trip, stay in contact with smugglers and leave as soon as possible.

"Why leave [the capital]?” says Barakat, smiling. “It’s tough, sure. But at least the people here are nice to us, the police, too. The security forces don’t hit us and they even give us milk for the children.”

Most people interviewed by InfoMigrants, whether they were Syrian, Pakistani or Afghan, mentioned the "politeness" of police officers and other Bosnians.

"They lived through a terrible war so I think they understand our situation,” says Abdallah, while rocking Maria. Sarajevo is a place where migrants can take a breather from police pressure.

A #Sarajevo, les migrants dorment exposés au froid et au mauvais temps. Ils n’ont pas de tentes. Les associations - sans gros moyens - ne fournissent que qqles couvertures, expliquent des migrants Pakistanais croisés non loin de la gare. #Bosnie pic.twitter.com/EBeIk8LqVC

— Charlotte Boitiaux (@chaboite) June 24, 2018

Translation of Tweet: In #Sarajevo, migrants sleep outside, exposed to cold and bad weather. They don’t have tents. Local organizations, lacking in resources, only provide a few blankets, explain several Pakistani migrants we met not far from the station. #Bosnia

400 new accommodations in Sarajevo

"On average, migrants spend about ten days in Bosnia, before trying to cross the Croatian border,” says Van Der Auweraert. “Going to reception centers located in villages outside of urban areas means moving them farther from their objective.”

Like most, Ahmad and Nour wanted to move on as quickly as possible. InfoMigrants met this Syrian couple in Sarajevo near 9pm. They were waiting for their smuggler.

They had arrived in the country 24 hours prior.

"I wasn’t able to apply for family reunification in Germany so I came to get my wife in Bosnia,” said Ahmad. “She had managed to go to Croatia and Slovenia but a woman denounced her and she was deported back to Sarajevo".

They did not want to lose time going to a reception center. Instead, they planned to leave for Croatia that night.

"They asked us for 2,500 euros to bring us from Mostar to Italy", says Ahmad, suitcase in hand. “We are going to pay and then go.”  

The government is planning on opening new accommodations in Hadzici, a suburb of Sarajevo.

"Soon, we’ll be setting up 400 small residences in the capital,” Van Der Auweraert. “We should be able to get families and migrants to stay there while they are in the country. There are 500 people who come to Bosnia each week. If they fade into the background and refuse to live in our reception centers, I fear that we will have a humanitarian crisis on our hands.”