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Several people were injured in clashes in an overcrowded reception center for refugees in Bosnia.

A dispute between two migrants escalated on Wednesday evening and led to a mass brawl in the facility in Blazuj near Sarajevo, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced on Thursday.

According to police, two officers and an IOM employee were injured.

Several IOM patrol cars and cars were reportedly damaged.

The organization's offices were also vandalized. 

According to a police spokesman, the reception center, which can accommodate 2,400 people, currently accommodates more than 3,000 migrants.

Bosnia is on the so-called Balkan route, which was used by tens of thousands of refugees.

Thousands in camps or forests

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Around 6,000 people are currently living in the five IOM refugee camps in Bosnia.

Between 2000 and 2500 other migrants are homeless.

They stay in forests or abandoned buildings near Bihac on the border with Croatia.

Another 900 people are housed in a time camp in Lipa recently set up by the army after an IOM-operated camp was destroyed in a fire in December.

At the beginning of the year, the EU criticized the situation of the refugees in Lipa as “completely unacceptable” and called for winter-proof accommodation to be built.