SARAJEVO: Fire engulfed a refugee camp in Bosnia on Wednesday minutes after the site was closed because of its poor condition, deepening a crisis over where to house thousands of migrants during winter.

The centre’s former residents looked on as thick black smoke billowed from the site, which the UN migration agency had started withdrawing from earlier in the day because it lacked proper heating, electricity and other essentials for winter. There were no casualties but the infrastructure of the site was destroyed, police spokesperson Ale Siljdedic told AFP.

Police believe the blaze was started by former residents of the camp, which sits near the northwestern village of Lipa.

Officials are deadlocked over where to shelter some 3,000 migrants in the area, a base for those making attempts to enter neighbouring EU member Croatia.

The Lipa camp was set up in April as a temporary solution, with humanitarian organisations warning that the site was not equipped for winter.

“For several reasons, mostly political, it never got connected to the main water or electricity supply, and was never winterized. And now, with this fire, it never will be,” Peter van der Auweraert, the head of the country’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) mission, said in a statement.—AFP