Smear campaign, online threats, and harassment against migrant rights defender Zehida Bihorac
On 17 September 2020, unidentified individuals violently threatened Zehida Bihorac on a country road outside of her hometown Velika Kladusa, after filming her, and pursuing her in their vehicle.
Since the beginning of August, migrant rights defender Zehida Bihorac has been facing an intensifying smear campaign and threats from Facebook users from her region.
Zehida Bihorac is an elementary school teacher and human rights defender from the Una-Sana Canton, located at the EU-border between Bosnia and Croatia. In 2018, she began to provide medicine, clothes, food and sleeping bags to the neglected refugee camps in and around her hometown Velika-Kladusa. In June 2020, she gave a speech in front of the Austrian parliament to report human rights abuses against refugees at the border and the backlash that volunteers face from the police and local residents.
On 17 September 2020, unidentified individuals violently threatened Zehida Bihorac on a country road outside of her hometown Velika Kladusa, after filming her, and pursuing her in their vehicle.
Zehida Bihorac is an elementary school teacher and woman human rights defender from the Una-Sana Canton, located at the EU-border between Bosnia and Croatia. In 2018, she began to provide medicine, clothes, food and sleeping bags to neglected refugee camps in and around her hometown Velika Kladusa. In June 2020, she gave a speech in front of the Austrian Parliament to report human rights abuses against refugees at the border and the backlash that volunteers face from the police and residents.
On the evening of 17 September 2020, Zehida Bihorac went to distribute humanitarian aid in one of the forest camps outside of Velika Kladusa, where a small group of refugees are living in dire conditions. She noticed two parked cars and two men nearby filming her with their phones. Zehida Bihorac took a picture of them and got into her own car to leave. One of the vehicles, a red Volkswagen, then followed her on the quiet country road. At a wider section of the road, the car outpaced her and blocked her path, forcing the woman human rights defender to stop her car. The driver and two other people, presumably his wife and teenage son, exited the vehicle and approached hers, shouting insults and threats, and calling her a “traitor to her country”. The man hit the bonnet and windshield with his hands before Zehida Bihorac managed to turn her car around and escape. They followed her until she reached the local police station, were she filed a complaint. The next day, Zehida Bihorac handed over video footage from a security camera to the police, showing the red car pursuing her.
The assailants belong to a private vigilante group who search the area for temporary refugee camps on a daily basis and are known for their violent behaviour towards migrants and volunteers. Since August 2020, when the Una Sana Canton government imposed severe restrictions on already marginalised refugee communities who do not live in official reception centres, there have been increasing reports of violence perpetrated by these vigilante groups, harassing and beating up refugees and burning their tents and belongings.
Zehida Bihorac has been facing an intensifying online smear campaign, threats and intimidation attempts since July 2020. Members of anti-immigration Facebook groups regularly post her personal information and pictures online, and she has repeatedly been followed and filmed in recent weeks. She was furthermore followed and stopped by the police on several occasions in June and July 2020.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned about the assault and intimidation of human rights defender Zehida Bihorac, as it believes that she was targeted solely for her legitimate and peaceful work in defence of human rights of people on the move.
Since the beginning of August, migrant rights defender Zehida Bihorac has been facing an intensifying smear campaign and threats from Facebook users from her region.
Zehida Bihorac is an elementary school teacher and human rights defender from the Una-Sana Canton, located at the EU-border between Bosnia and Croatia. In 2018, she began to provide medicine, clothes, food and sleeping bags to the neglected refugee camps in and around her hometown Velika-Kladusa. In June 2020, she gave a speech in front of the Austrian parliament to report human rights abuses against refugees at the border and the backlash that volunteers face from the police and local residents.
On 20 August 2020, a Facebook user commented in the group doček migranta (Migrants Welcome) that Zehida Bihorac was an “immoral women”, who is “sweating to go from man to man, I wonder if such a person is suitable to work at school with our children and grandchildren.” Other posts in the same Facebook group contain detailed descriptions on how refugees and those who help them should be killed. One user posted a picture of a metal baton with the caption “We should first beat up the helpers”. Others have also taken and posted pictures of her talking to refugees. On 24 August 2020, Zehida Bihorac filed a complaint against the individuals behind these and other Facebook posts at the local police station. To date, no action has been taken.
While this is not the first time the human rights defender is facing defamatory comments online, the smear campaign has intensified over the past number of weeks, especially since the Una Sana Canton government imposed severe restrictions on freedom of movement on already marginalised migrants and asylum seekers not living in the official reception centres. This includes bans on transportation and gatherings of migrants and asylum seekers, and a prohibition on providing them with private accommodation. The measures are enforced by roadblocks, interception of buses and raids of houses and squats by police and private vigilante groups, forcibly removing migrants without providing alternative accommodation.
In June and July this year, the police followed Zehida Bihorac and stopped her car on several occasions when she was driving from or towards the border, asking questions and accusing her of aiding illegal immigration, insinuating that she would be arrested soon. They also filmed her when she visited the refugee camps. On the evening of 18 June 2020, the human rights defender met refugees to distribute backpacks with food and medicine. Two minutes after she left the meeting spot, police cars with their sirens turned on arrived, blocked the road and asked the refugees about Zehida Bihorac.
Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned by the ongoing smear campaign and threats against Zehida Bihorac and other human rights defenders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have been facing increasing hostility both from the authorities and the general population since the beginning of the migration crisis of 2018.
