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From your comments on facebook and twitter, this was the most talked about moment from tonight's Euro Gap Year show.

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Bosnians who experienced war in their country for years have welcomed Syrian refugees fleeing war in their country. Because Bosnians can relate to their struggle they are more sympathetic than we are in the US. They also share religious culture.

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Velika Kladusa, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Unlike in other European countries, where protests against migrants and refugees have been taking place in recent years, Bosnians see their arrival as a test of humanity, having been in a similar situation in the early 1990s when war ravaged their country.

More than 14,000 have arrived in Bosnia so far this year, compared to just 755 in 2017. The migrants say they want to seek refuge in Western Europe.

Asim Latic is just one of many Bosnians that have been stepping up, providing humanitarian assistance to migrants stranded in Bosnia, a country that is still recovering from the war and has little resources of its own.

The 63-year-old has provided over 80,000 free meals since he closed his restaurant to locals in February, noticing that many of the refugees and migrants were hungry but had no money to pay for food.

Every day from 11am, 400 to 500 migrants arrive to eat at his restaurant in the small town of Velika Kladusa, by the Croatian border.

"They need help; they have no other option," Latic told Al Jazeera. "In Bosnia, we experienced war for four years. We were hungry, thirsty ... children as well. We sympathise with these people. They have nowhere to go. They're looking for a better life."

Latic provided free meals for the first two and a half months on his own with a team of four friends, relying on donations.

As word spread, more locals arrived, pitching in with food, supplies and donations. Now, the UN Migration Organisation (IOM) supports their initiative.

"They're people who are seeking refuge. They want to work; they want to provide for their families just like us. They aren't people who are looking to create problems," Latic said.

A 10-minute walk from Latic's restaurant, Hasan Coragic has invited the fourth refugee family to live in his house.

He had met the Syrian family at the local mosque and was moved when he saw children with them, homeless, with all their belongings in one bag.

"They're in a much more difficult situation than I was [during the war]," Coragic said. "I was at least in my own country, but they don't know where to go or what to do. They don't know the language. They only have one bag and nothing else."

Bosnians have been pitching in across the country.

According to Peter Van der Auweraert, Western Balkans Coordinator for the IOM, the Sarajevo-based NGO Pomozi.ba asked for donations for refugees and migrants for Eid al-Adha and received 80 tonnes of meat from Sarajevo citizens.

"This is absolutely remarkable," Van der Auweraert said.

"No matter what the political rhetoric is in the country, there are fundamental European values that are shared across the population and that is something that is quite spectacular."

'A chance to be appreciated'

Hundreds of refugees and migrants, many of them women and children, have been living in makeshift tents on a field in Velika Kladusa with winter fast approaching.

The Kladusnica river poses an additional problem as it often floods the field following rainfall.

Authorities have not yet agreed where they can accommodate these newcomers.

Danica Jurisic, once a Bosnian minor refugee herself, helped collect 3.5 tonnes of blankets last spring which she shipped to Sarajevo from Paris, with the help of Pomozi.ba. She is currently collecting another 10,000 blankets to send before winter arrives.

For the past three years, she has travelled across Europe, volunteering at migrant and refugee camps in Belgium, France, Italy, Greece and Serbia.

She said nothing could have prepared her for what she witnessed in Bosnia.

"The images from Velika Kladusa are haunting me. It's really worrying," Jurisic said, from her home in Paris.

Jurisic was shocked when refugees migrants showed her their injuries and shared stories of being beaten and abused by the Croatian police as they attempted to trek through Croatia and Slovenia.

They also claimed their money and valuables were stolen and their mobile phones damaged beyond repair.

That's why, before embarking on a 20-hour ride to Bosnia from Paris, Jurisic stuffed a suitcase with around 100 power banks for phones, seven smartphones and laptops as well as an odd purple box called "Jangala" that provides wifi in humanitarian emergencies, providing internet for about 200 users in a radius of 50 metres.

"We wanted to help those refugees just to try to recover from the violence. I brought several phones with me that were still usable so they can get in touch with their families. They're completely cut off and isolated because they had no access to any kind of devices," Jurisic said.

"We wanted to give them a chance to be appreciated."

I have seen that Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens, whether they are poor, middle-class, rich, whether they are Serbs, Croats or Bosniak - the overwhelming majority responded with solidarity, understanding and humanity.

Peter Van der Auweraert, Western Balkans Coordinator for the IOM

In stark contrast, in September, Josip Tomic, a Croatian Catholic priest living near the Slovenian-Croatian border advised locals against giving refugees and migrants food or water.

On a Facebook page he manages, with a stated goal to "promote history, Croatian culture, and the Catholic religion", the priest described men fleeing war and persecution as "military deserters" and warned of "suspicious movements of women and children with the goal of settling in European cultural countries."

"They are not ready to accept our tradition, customs and culture," the priest warned, adding that locals should immediately report unknown people to authorities.

"For 500 years, Croatia was the bulwark of Christianity and a defender of Europe from Islamic heresy. Let's continue this tradition and protect Europe from the invasion of illegal Islamic migration," the priest said.

Similarly, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik stated in May that the arrival of refugees and migrants was part of a conspiracy concocted by a "hidden Sarajevo structure" to boost Bosnia's Muslim population, declaring that he refused to have any stationed in Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb entity.

Despite political rhetoric, Bosnia's population has responded in its own way.

Van der Auweraert, the IOM coordinator, noted that despite the influx in western Bosnia, no anti-refugee protests have been organised.

"I can tell you, if we would have the same situation in similar towns in Belgium, we would have had extreme right-wing demonstrations against migrants already a long time ago. We haven't seen anything like that in either Velika Kladusa or Bihac," he said.

"I have seen that Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens whether they are poor, middle-class, rich, whether they are Serbs, Croats or Bosniak - the overwhelming majority responded with solidarity, understanding and humanity."

Van der Auweraert recounted a story of how a man, dressed in a suit, drove up in a Porsche Cayenne to the park in Velika Kladusa where refugees and migrants were camping.

He had come with his two children to donate sleeping bags and blankets to show his family what solidarity is.

"In Belgium, someone who drives a Porsche Cayenne doesn't come close to a migrant camp in any sort of way, shape or form," Van der Auweraert said.

For Jurisic, the Paris-based volunteer, seeing the refugees on the Bosnian-Croatian border brings up memories of her difficult time.

She recalls escaping her hometown of Sarajevo on May 1, 1992, the last week before Sarajevo was completely sealed off by Serb forces.

Only 16 years old, she managed to cross into Croatia on her own, without any documents, by hopping on a bus that was heading to the coastal city of Split.

Various military groups stopped the bus along the way but fortunately, they weren't turned away.

Although safe from the shelling and sniper attacks in Sarajevo, life was still difficult as a refugee in Croatia.

"When I [arrived in Croatia], people weren't happy with me as a refugee from Sarajevo," Jurisic said, adding that she received threats from locals who told her that she was "contaminated with Muslim culture".

"I would just like for people to start thinking, not about what is legal and what is documented and who has the papers, but just to remember that we're all people," Jurisic said.

"This is not about who is legal or who has the right to cross the border. This is about - are we going to save our humanity? How are we going to react?"

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'Solidarity, understanding, humanity' welcome refugees in Bosnia

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Velika Kladusa, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Unlike in other European countries, where protests against migrants and refugees have been taking place in recent years, Bosnians see their arrival as a test of humanity, having been in a similar situation in the early 1990s when war ravaged their country.

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Muslims celebrate Eid-al-
Fitr at the end of Ramadan. It lasts three days, two of which they do not go to work. Men attend the morning Eid prayer and return home to breakfast of traditional Bosniak foods. They visit family and give gifts.  Eid-al-Adha lasts four days, two of them they do not go to work. People sacrifice an animal for dinner and give the rest to charity for people who cannot have an Eid dinner.

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Religious holidays are very important in Bosnia for everyone.

Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter. For Christmas there is a large dinner followed by traditional Christmas cakes. Orthodox Christians leave animal bones outside to freeze overnight and predict how the next year will go depending on how they crack. On Easter they play a game called tucanje where two people smash eggs together and whoever's egg does not crack wins.

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Bosnians live with their parents until they get married and sometimes after. Because of low income, younger couples are marrying and having children less. Parents house and provide for their adult children so they take care of them in their old age. In rural Bosnia often you will find three generations living together. People are close with their extended family. The mother and father both work and children go to a daycare or are cared for by an older relative.

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Mostar is a popular city to visit because of its mixture of old and new. At the city center is a reconstructed medieval arch bridge that local men jump off of as a rite of passage.

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Bosnian:
Međutim, gotovo su identični i biće bolje klasifikovani kao dijalekti.
Croatian:
Ipak, oni su gotovo identični i bit će bolje klasificirani kao dijalekti.
Serbian:
One su gotovo istovetne i bolje bi bile klasifikovane kao dijalekti.

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Bosnian music group Dubioza Kolektiv is very well known in Bosnia. Their music style is diverse and spans many genres. They're known for socially and politically conscious lyrics reflecting the situation in their country. Having been founded in 1993, they would practice with no electricity in the dark.

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Bosnians love pies! Meat pies, cheese pies, cheese and spinach pies, cabbage pies, and so on. Bosnian Muslims do not eat pork, and their cooking is largely influenced by Turkish and Greek food. Lunch is the largest meal of the day and often includes soup. Hosts serve their guests a lot of food, usually more than they can eat, as a sign of hospitality. It is less common for friends eating out to pay separately or split the bill. More often someone offers to pay for everyone. The national drink is rakija, a strong brandy made from plums. Cevapi is a common dish. It's sausages inside bread served with diced onion.

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It is impolite for men to touch a Muslim woman.

Bosnians are considered in general to be very loud people

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People greet each other with a handshake, and a kiss on the cheek for friends. Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks kiss once on each cheek and Bosnian Serbs give three kisses.
Zdravo-Hi
Dobro jutro-Good morning
Dobar dan-Good day
Dobro vecer-good evening
Do vidjenja-Good bye

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Western-style clothing is popular, particularly in urban areas. Traditional clothing is worn sometimes in rural areas or on special occasions, and Serb, Croat, and Bosniak traditional clothing all vary. More religious Bosniak women wear headscarves. Sometimes traditional and Western clothing are worn together.

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Religion is a tense subject in Bosnia in the wake of the 1990s genocide. There is a religious divide in Bosnia between its three ethnic groups. Bosnians whose ancestors were Catholic are defined as Bosnian Croats, those of an Eastern Orthodox background are defined as Bosnian Serbs, and Muslims are called Bosniaks. The makeup is as follows: Today, 51 percent of Bosnians are Muslim, 31 percent are Orthodox Christian, and 15 percent are Roman Catholic. Relations between the groups are complicated and tense.

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Bosnians speak a Serbo-Croatian language. It is a Slavic language with 30 letters and uses both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabet depending on where in the country you are. This is called synchronic digraphia: two writing systems exist for the same language. BiH is made up of two different constitutional and legal entities: Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Republika uses the Latin script in schools and the Republika uses the Cyrillic script. Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian are all three distinct languages. They are very similar however, and many people say if you know Serbian, you can also speak and understand Croatian and Bosnian.