NEWS AND MORE's video: Separated from their mother migrant children stuck in Bosnia wait to enter EU

Separated from their mother, migrant children stuck in Bosnia wait to enter EU Among thousands of migrants stuck in northern Bosnia, children in one family are waiting out the bitter winter and missing their mother. Frhan Hzam, originally from Iraq, and his three children were separated from his wife and another child while trying to cross into European Union member Croatia. Police turned Hzam and his children back to Bosnia, while his wife Iqbal and another child made it across and then on to Germany. The family are sheltering in a house owned by Bosnians living abroad, who agreed to let the family stay there with the help of a local charity Hzam's younger children miss their mother and are sad when she cries during video calls by mobile phone. His son Amim, 14, studies German in the hope of finally being able to join his mother one day. He said the family had tried to cross into Croatia 40 times and been sent back each time. More than 8,000 people from Asia, Middle East and North Africa remain in Bosnia after the EU countries sealed their borders due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many live in tents in the woods or in houses and factories damaged in the Bosnian war of the 1990s. Zehida Bihorac Odobasic, a school teacher and activist, visits the Hzam family with supplies as well as other migrants living in a snowbound tent camp. She said the few migrants living in the houses, as well as the houses' owners, went in fear of attacks or of the houses being set on fire. She said she herself had been attacked and that other volunteers were being verbally and physically intimidated. Her complaints to police resulted in no action. Last November, a UN human rights expert called on the Bosnian government to investigate a "smear campaign and death threats" against her and bring those responsible to justice according to international standards. "We are witnessing an absolute violation of human rights," Bihorac Odobasic said while standing amid the tents in deep snow. She added that violence against migrants and volunteers was being tolerated on the EU's borders. The EU has repeatedly called on Bosnian authorities to provide accommodation to at least 1,000 people sleeping rough during the winter. Since early 2018, the EU has provided more than 88 million euros to help Bosnia manage the migrant crisis. (Production: Dado Ruvic, Lewis Macdonald)