The end of October brought a foretaste of the cold season to Vucjak refugee camp. Temperatures in Bosnia have already dropped to well below 10 degrees Celsius. Most migrants are not equipped for the cold; they're reliant on donated clothes and blankets. Some don’t even have a sturdy pair of shoes.

To warm themselves just a little, the Syrians, Afghans and Pakistanis who are stuck here collect firewood to heat their accommodation. They are forced to choose between constantly freezing in a tent of thin tarpaulin, or risking respiratory problems.

Vucjak was created in June out of sheer necessity. There are only around 7,000 - 8,000 migrants in Bosnia-Herzegovina right now, but the majority are stuck in the northwest of the country near the small town of Bihac. All the camps were full to overflowing, so Bihac erected the improvised camp on a former landfill site. It doesn’t meet the standards required by international organizations.

Aid organizations are urging the Bosnian authorities to close Vucjak and provide the migrants with better accommodation. "If people spend the winter there, there will be deaths — within a few days or weeks," warns Peter Van der Auweraert, Western Balkans Coordinator of the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

Vucjak is only about 8 kilometers from the border with Croatia. Many refugees try to cross into the EU illegally through the unfenced border areas. Many don’t succeed; they end up coming back to the camp, like these three men from Syria. They’re better off sticking to the road — this area is full of uncleared landmines left over from the Yugoslavian wars of the 1990s.

Cold water from a canister is all there is in Vucjak. The hygiene situation is disastrous. Diseases, like scabies, are spreading. What medical care there is, is rudimentary. People are only taken to hospital if they have a really serious disease or injury.

Both water and electricity are in short supply. Anyone who still has a cellphone, though, is lucky. Many refugees say their phones were destroyed or stolen by Croatian policemen at the border. Croatia denies the accusation. A cellphone is a migrant’s most important possession — with it, they are able to stay in contact with their families and friends, and organize their escape route.

These men are trying to make the best of the little they receive in Vucjak. They're baking flatbreads, the kind they eat at home. The Red Cross supplies food, but it's often only enough for two meager meals a day. In the summer, the head of the Red Cross, Selam Midzic, accused the central government in Sarajevo of abandoning the region and leaving it to deal with the migrants on its own.

A fire alone is not enough to keep body and soul warm. These people want to get out of Vucjak as soon as possible. "I saw buildings for animals in Slovenia and Croatia that were better than this camp," says a man from Afghanistan. "This isn’t a camp. This is no place for humans."

It's estimated that 8,000 refugees live in Bihac. The camps are overcrowded and every day there is talk of burglaries. There was a stabbing in front of the kindergarten. Next to Camp Bira, there were about 500 people not registered with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). In mid-June police picked them up and drove them to a site called Vucjak.

Within a few days, police continued to bring more refugees to Vucjak — a site that was the city's garbage dump for decades. It was covered with soil and then flattened. Local residents say it is omitting methane gas. Apart from the putrid stench, there are only three tents and some drinking water tanks. No toilets, no showers, no electricity, no paramedics.

Local Red Cross workers from Bihac say that neither the government in Sarajevo nor the IOM are giving them any funds to look after the refugees or buy medical supplies. The IOM staff stopped by briefly but did nothing. They then made a plea to the people of Bihac to donate food.

Those at the camp receive paltry soup and bread twice a day from the Red Cross. There is no electricity, no toilets, no showers, and no way to wash clothing. Almost everyone has skin rashes, open or purulent wounds, and their legs and feet are bloodied. There are no doctors. Red Cross medics say they have inadequate supplies to provide relief.

Abdul Rahim Bilal screamed in pain as he was unloaded from a police van. Shortly afterward he became unresponsive and lay in the dirt with his hands on his appendix. The bus drove off. After desperate calls for help, another policeman called an ambulance which took half an hour to arrive. According to the hospital, he was released three days later.

Most in the camp are young men from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria; some are also from India, Egypt and Gaza. The refugees in Vucjak have been making their way to Europe for at least 10 weeks, some even up to three years. They speak of the war in Syria, terrorist attacks and police violence in Pakistan and air raids in Gaza.

Jouma Al Hamid was in an Assad prison in Syria. He comes from the Idlib area. He's been on the road for three years and spent one year in Camp Moria on Lesbos. "I can't take it anymore," says the 26-year-old. "I just want to live in a house, that's all. I'm frightened, by the police, by criminal gang lords here." People smugglers charge €3,000 ($3,400) but he does not have it.

Hassan Ali was forcibly removed from Camp Bira to Vucjak by police despite being registered as a migrant at IOM and having a place in the camp. They gave him no explanation: "The police arrested me in town. When I showed my IOM card and said I was in Bira, they said if I say that again they will beat me. Then they brought me here. I don't know why."

The youngest refugee at former-garbage dump campsite is 12 years old. He actually should be at Camp Bira, or in one of the hotels where women and children are accommodated but the police picked him up and brought him to Vucjak. His only possessions are the clothes he is wearing.

The people here are crying out to be heard. With a paper and a marker, a woman from a French human rights organization helped them write a legible sign, in a desperate attempt to get help.

The European Union can't deny that they know what the situation is like here. Two EUFOR soldiers were in Vucjak and witnessed everything. They will have reported to their headquarters. This situation is strongly reminiscent of the war in Bosnia. Bihac was a "UN protection zone," but only on paper. UN observers were here and they didn't do anything. Just like EUFOR.