ZAGREB, May 4, 2019 - Leaders of the opposition Živi Zid party visited Karlovac on Friday as part of their campaign trail for the European Parliament elections, accusing the government of being unable to deal with the migrant crisis and calling for the deployment of troops along Croatia's borders.
"The Croatian authorities are unable to cope with the migrant crisis. With warmer weather coming soon, migrations will increase, and Croatia could become a hotspot and temporary shelter for illegal migrants," said the top candidate on the party's election slate, Tihomir Lukanić.
Lukanić proposed that army troops assist the police along the border and that the issue of increasing migrations be dealt with at their source, in Asia and Africa. He added that Živi Zid would enter the EP in cooperation with kindred parties and platforms, citing Italy's Five Star Movement.
"In the EP we are going to fight institutionally for halting the migrant tide in the countries from which migrants are coming," Lukanić said.
The party leader Ivan Vilibor Sinčić said that "Croatia is not controlling its territory as its borders are highly porous."
The Croatian army is "at the Russian border and in Afghanistan instead of at the Croatian border while the Austrian army is at the Austrian border, the Hungarian army is at the Hungarian border, the Slovenian army is at the Slovenian border and the Bosnia and Herzegovina army is at the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Sinčić.
"There are not enough personnel and equipment at our border, we should take this problem seriously rather than ignore it. We should deploy the army," he added.
Sinčić went on to say that the population on the African continent currently stands at 1.2 billion and that United Nations estimates indicate that it would rise to 2.5 billion until 2050.
It is evident that the only solution is to create conditions for a normal life there and not allow migrations, he said.
More news about the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.
