ZAGREB, December 5, 2018 - Hrvoje Zekanović, the sole MP of the HRAST party, announced at a press conference in the Croatian parliament on Wednesday that he and two of his colleagues from the civil society organisation Hrvatski Bedem would be in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on December 10-11 to protest against the adoption of the UN Global Migration Compact.

Zekanović said they were angry because the Marrakesh agreement had not been discussed in the Croatian parliament and that they did not know the President's position on it either. He added that they would express their dissatisfaction at press conferences and in street protests, linking up with similar initiatives from other countries.

Željko Sačić of Hrvatski Bedem (Croatian Rampart) said they were travelling to Marrakesh to be "the voice of disenfranchised and totally democratically silenced Croatian people, champions of sovereignty who didn't have a chance to speak in the state institutions about this agreement."

"We couldn't speak about it in the cabinet, in parliament and before a parliamentary committee, we have been silenced. Zekanović is travelling to Marrakesh to say that we Croats, like our neighbours Hungarians, Italians, Czechs, Slovaks, our friends from the US, Japan and many other countries, are against the Marrakesh agreement and that we will do all in our power to ensure that this agreement, even if illegitimately adopted by Croatia, is not applied," Sačić said.

He said that the agreement would only put additional financial obligations on Croatia, which is already in a great demographic, social, economic and financial crisis, and that the adoption of the Marrakesh agreement could result in "an irreparable national disaster."

"We will do all we can to raise awareness of the Croatian people, despite the current ruling elite, to show what a great danger this globalist idea is to us," Sačić said.

For more on the migration issues in Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, Nov 30 (Hina) - A concluding conference regarding a project for support to integrating aliens from third countries requiring international protection was held in Zagreb on Friday and attracted representatives from state and local government, public services, NGOs and the academic community who underscored that the greatest problem with migrant integration in Croatia is learning the language and finding a job.

Last year, Croatia approved international protection or asylum for 213 foreigners, and in the first nine months of this year, it has already approved an additional 232, Interior Ministry State Secretary, Žarko Katić said.

Most of those persons who have been granted international protection are Syrians who have arrived in Croatian from Turkey as part of the resettlement programme.

Based on the resettlement programme and a government decision in 2015, 152 people were resettled in Croatia and last year the government adopted another decision leading to the resettlement of an additional 100 people who are expected to arrive, Katić said.

He explained that the Interior Ministry was responsible for the approval of international protection and that upon the approval of protection, other institutions need to be included in integrating these people as they have to be accommodated somewhere, children have to attend school and they all have the right to health care and social welfare in line with Croatian laws.

Various agencies are expected to be engaged providing care for these people while the Office for Human Rights and National Minorities coordinates all the activities to ensure their better integration.

The 15 month-long project providing support to integrate foreigners was conducted with the aim of raising awareness in public and among experts and it was financed within the framework of the national asylum, migration and integration fund.

Assistant director of the Office for human rights, Danijela Gaube explained that as a member of the EU, Croatia was given a quota for receiving 1,583 people who are to be resettled from Italy, Greece and Turkey.

Experience has shown that citizens' attitude to accepting foreigners is divided and that is something that needs to be worked on, she said.

Since 2006, 716 people have been given international protection and Croatia has accepted 180 people through resettlement and relocation from Italy, Greece and Turkey. They were approved for international protection even prior to arriving in Croatia after which Croatia is obliged to secure them with accommodation.

Gaube explained that the greatest challenge facing these people is to learn the language and to find a job, however, Zadar has had positive experiences and all the male refugees, resettled to that Adriatic city, have been employed.

Chief of staff in Zadar Mayor's office, Neven Klarin, said that Zadar has had the most experience with refugees as it was the first town they were relocated to.

Currently, there are seven refugee families with a total of 27 members that are relocated to Zadar.

For more on Croatia’s migrant and refugee policies, click here.

ZAGREB, November 29, 2018 - The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Marija Pejčinović Burić, presented to the parliamentary foreign affairs committee a report on the Global Migration Compact on Wednesday, reiterating that this was a set of measures that promote cooperation between countries with regard to regular migration and that it was not a binding document by which states diminish their sovereignty or according to which migration was considered as a human right, however critics claimed that endorsing the document also meant accepting certain political obligations.

Pejčinović Burić together with Interior Minister Davor Božinović answered to criticisms by almost all parties regarding the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) that is supposed to be endorsed in Marrakesh in early December.

The process was launched by the adoption of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants by 193 UN member states. The minister said Croatia had participated in forming the EU's joint stance on this matter.

Countries like the USA, Israel, Australia, the entire Visegrad Group and Austria have announced that they will not adopt the Global Compact.

Critics claim that the non-binding document declares economic migration as a human right which means giving up a state's sovereignty while supporters of the Compact claim that it will improve international management of migrant waves and strengthen the protection of human rights.

Pejčinović Burić addressed the parliamentary committee and said that the document was a reaction to 258 million people leaving their countries and that the UN took on the responsibility to prepare a document with the intention of controlling that phenomenon which is almost impossible to control without international cooperation.

"Countries independently decide on the application of those measures according to national legislation and migration policies," she said and reiterated that this is an unbinding document aimed exclusively on regular migrants. "The Global Compact is not an international legal agreement and it is not a legally binding document. It isn't something that is signed," she said.

Minister Božinović welcomed the fact that the international community had realised at the level of the UN that the migrant issue was something that finally had to be dealt with. "With this document, for the first time, the international community is realising that this issue needs to be regulated," and it wasn't dealt with before because developed countries had a lot of benefit from migrations.

MOST leader Božo Petrov said that the interested public should have been informed of this issue much earlier and not "ten days" before the document is to be adopted in Marrakesh. He expressed concern that countries in Croatia's neighbourhood had rejected the Compact and called for a vote that the issue be debated in parliament however, that motion was denied by the committee's chairman Miro Kovač (HDZ).

Branimir Bunjac from the Živi Zid said that his party would not support the Compact because it was unclear and ambiguous.

Joško Klisović (SDP) said that "the document doesn't undermine sovereignty in any way. He claimed that the issue of migrations is something that can only be handled at a global forum like the United Nations, adding that he regretted that Croatia would not represented in Marrakesh by the President nor the foreign minister but would be represented by the interior minister.

For more on Croatia’s migration policies, click here.

I am glad that we have succeeded in bringing Syrian children, orphans, to forget at least for a short time the Syrian hell in which they have been living for eight years, said Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović after she received a gift that these Syrian children sent her as a sign of gratitude. In June, 34 children and five adults from various parts of Syria stayed at the Red Cross resort in Novi Vinodolski in Croatia, reports Večernji List on November 19, 2018.

The children have managed to collect enough money from their allowances to buy a unique handmade jewellery box made of high-quality oak wood. A box of this size takes at least 15 days of handwork because all the engravings are made manually. In most of the Arab world, giving such a box shows great respect and gratitude.

The president emphasized she hoped that next year she would be able to again bring children from Syria and other countries tormented by war horrors. The person who did the most to bring them to Croatia is Đurđa Adlešić, the president of the Croatia Helps association, who worked on the project for two years.

In addition to President Grabar-Kitarović, the project was supported by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković as well, who sent his spokesperson Marko Milić to visit the children while they were in Novi Vinodolski. President’s advisor Mate Granić also visited them.

Prior to returning to Syria, the children were received at the government building by Zvonimir Frka-Petešić, the prime minister’s chief of staff, who presented them with small gifts and wished them happiness and peace in their country.

“We want to live in peace just like people in Croatia live. Instead of grenades and shootings, we want to listen to birds. Instead of tears and sadness, we want laughter, dancing and singing,” said the youngest member of the group, the 10-year-old Hanin who lost her father and brother in the war, adding that she would never forget Croatia and her new friends whom she will invite to her country as soon as the war is over.

For more on Croatia’s relations with Syria, click here.

Translated from Večernji List (reported by Hassan Haidar Diab).

ZAGREB, November 16, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Friday that Croatia would be represented by Interior Minister Davor Božinović in Marrakesh where the United Nationals Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is expected to be endorsed. The Marrakesh Migration Conference is scheduled for 10-11 December.

Božinović will represent Croatia after Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović backed out from going, saying that the U.N. migration pact was causing disputes.

The Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, will be held in Marrakech, Morocco on 10 and 11 December 2018, the UN. has reported on its web site. "This Intergovernmental Conference is convened under the auspices of the General Assembly of the United Nations and held pursuant to the 'New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants' (19 September 2016) which decided to launch a process of intergovernmental negotiations leading to the adoption of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration."

The Marrakesh agreement gives every state the sovereign right to define its own migration policy, protect its borders and decide who to allow into the country, and it clearly differentiates between legal and illegal migration, the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Marija Pejčinović Burić, said at a cabinet meeting on Friday. She presented a report on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

Croatia was involved with the other 26 EU member states in negotiations on the text of the document, and it was important to all of them that certain fundamental principles were included in the document, which was eventually accomplished, the minister said.

"The Global Compact is not an international treaty, it is not legally binding and hence it is not signed. It is a catalogue of measures encouraging states to cooperate on issues related to regular migration," Pejčinović Burić said.

"States sovereignly decide which measures they will apply in accordance with national law and existing international legal commitments. Every state will continue to sovereignly decide on its own national policy on migration and the stay of foreign nationals on its territory and this concerns only regular migration," she said.

Pejčinović Burić welcomed the decision for Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović to represent Croatia at the Marrakesh conference. Božinović said that no country could deal with the problem of migration on its own, adding that it was a global issue that could not be ignored. "This document does not open the door to new migrants," he said, stressing that any attempt at international level to alleviate the migration pressure deserved attention.

"Migration cannot be dealt with on anyone's borders. It can be dealt with, or I should say alleviated, only through cooperation between states and by removing the causes at their origin, which the Compact addresses," Božinović said.

The government will send Pejčinović Burić's report and a translation of the Global Compact to parliament.

For more on Croatia’s migrant policies, click here.

ZAGREB, November 15, 2018 - The Croatian Interior Ministry issued a statement on Thursday following an article in the British newspaper The Guardian about the ill-treatment of migrants by Croatian police on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"We are appalled that the protection of the Croatian state border, which is carried out by the Croatian police only, is being discredited and connected to imagined paramilitary agents wearing secret insignia that operate on the border under cover of night, and the fact that the Homeland War is referred to as a revolt of Croatian Serbs deserves the strongest condemnation," the ministry said on its website.

In his query to the ministry, The Guardian's reporter Lorenzo Tondo mentioned migrants' accounts alleging that "some officers wear paramilitary uniforms with a badge depicting a sword upraised by two lightning bolts."

According to our sources, some of them are members of a Croatian special police formation set up around the ministry's existing special police air unit following an open revolt of Croatian Serbs against the government in Croatia. According to our sources, they may still be active as an anti-terrorist squad along the Bosnian border, the British newspaper said in its query.

The ministry said that within the Police Directorate there is a special police command as a branch of the Croatian police. "We have no knowledge of the operation of paramilitary agents which you insinuate. The Croatian state border is guarded only by Croatian police wearing their official uniforms and displaying the official insignia of this Ministry," the statement said.

"What you referred to in your query as an open revolt of Croatian Serbs against the government in Croatia is the liberating Homeland War which followed aggression by Serb rebels and the former Yugoslav army against a legitimate and democratically elected Croatian government. The Ministry of the Interior still remembers with the greatest respect 762 of its officers killed, 27 missing and over 3,600 wounded in the Homeland War," the ministry said.

For more on Croatia’s migrants policies, click here.

ZAGREB, November 14, 2018 - During question time in parliament on Wednesday, independent Mirando Mrsić warned about "the spreading of fake news and hysteria about migrants", inviting Prime Minister Andrej Plenković that they visit migrants together and make a statement that they were welcome in Croatia.

"How many crimes were committed by migrants over the past year? How many persons have applied for asylum and how many have been granted it?" Mrsić said. He in particular called out Živi Zid MP Ivan Pernar over spreading fake news about migrants.

Plenković agreed that there was a wave of hysteria and panic over illegal migration and urged politicians and the media not to spread hysteria unnecessarily. "We will continue to protect the border from illegal migration and when it comes to legal migration or a humanitarian approach, when it comes to people seeking asylum, we will act in line with our and European regulations, pursuing a responsible policy and eliminating the existing hysteria, drama and panic," he said.

Mrsić called on parliament's speaker and presidency to distance themselves from Pernar's statements and on the government not to allow the spreading of untruths in the media and rampant intolerance in society.

Miroslav Tuđman of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) asked about the security aspect of illegal migration. Interior Minister Davor Božinović recalled that Croatia has the longest external land border in the European Union, bordering on non-EU states, which he said was a challenge which no state could resolve alone. "Illegal migration is also a security issue," he said, adding that the government had asked that the states south of Croatia be included in dealing with the issue.

MP Bruna Esih of the Independents for Croatia party harshly criticised Prime Minister Andrej Plenković because of the UN Global Compact for Migration, claiming that he had “long ago shown” that the fate of “hysterical” Croatians isn't one of his priorities, while the prime minister retorted that the point of that document is to manage regular migrations and called on Esih to state what she found problematic in that document other than her impressions.

Esih questioned why so many EU member states were opposed to the U.N. pact on migrations. "Why all the heated debate, for God's sake, when its contents, as Mr Jandroković instructed us, are undisputed and unbinding," said Esih.

Plenković ironically responded that he gives her a "plus for her effort with her second query," hinting at the fact that she has only once raised any issue during question time in parliament so far. "The document you are referring to is the UN's response to a phenomenon that has occurred in Europe and the world in 2015 and 2016. And Hungary alone has expressed reservation to that document," Plenković explained.

Not one expert, he underscored, views it as a dramatic bomb, apart from certain actors and political parties with similar worldviews, who are trying to gain some points from this issue, he said. MP Esih said that she wasn't satisfied with Plenković's response.

Responding to a question by SDP MP Josko Klisović with regard to Croatia's foreign policy about the UN Global Compact on Regular Migrations, Plenković said that at not one moment in the past two years did he hear anyone say there were any problems with that document.

"I didn't hear that from the president either except that she intended to go to Marakesh and then said she wouldn't go. I didn't hear that any particular sentence was a problem, any formula or anything in the Global Compact about legal migrations. So as far as I am concerned, there is no disunity here," Plenković said in his comment on the recent statements made by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on the Global Compact that is to be endorsed in Marrakesh, Morocco, in December.

"As far as state policy on migrations is concerned, be it regular or irregular, the policy is based on three points: to prevent irregular migrations, fulfil the Schengen Area requirements and to support all international efforts whether they are related to regulating legal or preventing illegal migrants," Plenković said and added that the government would discuss the Compact this week and then forward it to parliament.

For more on Croatia’s migrant policies, click here.

ZAGREB, November 14, 2018 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday evening that there was no opposition within the parliamentary group of his HDZ party to the Marrakesh migration agreement.

"Earlier today at the meeting of the parliamentary majority and here at the meeting of the HDZ parliamentary group, we have received unanimous support for this document. It is not an international treaty, it is not binding and it leaves every country, including Croatia, the sovereign right to conduct its own migration policy," Plenković told reporters.

The prime minister said it had not been decided yet who would represent Croatia in Marrakesh. "We haven't decided that yet. We will see how other countries respond," he added.

Plenković also spoke of his meeting earlier in the day with Vukovar Mayor Ivan Penava, saying that they had discussed preparations for Vukovar Remembrance Day, the participation of government officials and members of parliament in the Remembrance Procession, and projects for Vukovar.

"Nothing has changed in our relationship. Vukovar is very important to this government. We have increased allocations into the Vukovar fund by 50 percent and we support many projects," the prime minister said when asked to comment on his relationship with the mayor following a protest rally in this eastern town over inefficiency in prosecuting war crimes from the early 1990s.

Asked about the fake texts affair and Franjo Varga as the chief suspect and his connections with presidential adviser Vlado Galić, Plenković said that the case was being investigated. "What is important is that in our records there is no evidence of any formal cooperation between Mr Varga and the HDZ during the relevant period, and that is 2014 and 2015," Plenković said, adding that he had no knowledge if there had existed any informal cooperation with individuals.

For more on the HDZ activities, click here.

ZAGREB, November 13, 2018 - The Ministry of the Interior on Monday rejected the accusations by the Centre for Peace Studies (CMS) that the Ministry denied its volunteers access to the reception centre for asylum seekers in Zagreb.

The ministry dismissed as "completely untrue and unacceptable" the claim by the CMS that the ministry's refusal to renew the agreement on cooperation in providing support to seekers of international protection accommodated in the reception centre for asylum seekers is a political decision aimed at intimidating, marginalising and distancing an organisation that has drawn public attention to the unlawful treatment of refugees by police.

Given that the Centre for Peace Studies does not have a valid cooperation agreement with the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry cannot grant CMS volunteers entry to the reception centre for asylum seekers, the Ministry said in a statement.

The Ministry currently has cooperation agreements in place with the Jesuit Refugee Service, the Croatian Law Centre, Croatian Baptist Aid, the Baptist Church of Zagreb, and Are You Syrious.

Considering the reports submitted by the CMS about its activities, which included teaching Croatian and conversations with seekers of international protection, as part of which CMS volunteers informed them about the asylum system and integration, and having examined the valid agreements which the Ministry has in place with other non-governmental organisations and ongoing projects, it has been concluded that the CMS offers the same or similar activities that are already being conducted by the other organisations operating at the reception centre, the statement said.

The Ministry noted that assistance to asylum seekers was also secured through projects led by the Croatian Red Cross and the Belgian organisation Medecins du Monde.

The Centre for Peace Studies free to conduct its activities on its own premises

The Ministry said it was in no way trying to prevent the CMS from providing support to seekers of international protection and persons who have been granted protection, adding that the organisation was free to conduct its activities on its own premises.

Seekers of international protection are entitled to free public transport and their access to the CMS or contact with any other non-governmental organisation is in no way limited, the Ministry said.

The Ministry said it had never considered the CMS an undesirable partner, but added that insistence on the claim that the Ministry was responsible for the death of Afghan migrant girl Madina, despite the fact that a criminal complaint against unidentified border police officers was dismissed in June, was unacceptable.

In conclusion, the Ministry noted that this year alone it had received 998 claims for international protection and granted 226.

For more on Croatia’s NGOs, click here.

ZAGREB, November 12, 2018 - The Centre for Peace Studies (CMS) said on Monday that as of September the Interior Ministry was preventing it from entering the reception centres for asylum seekers in Zagreb and Kutina, refusing to extend a cooperation agreement with CMS, which has been working in such centres for 15 years and pointing to the ministry's unlawful conduct.

The ministry's explanation is that there is no space for CMS activities and that enough organisations are active in the reception centres, representatives of CMS and the Human Rights House told reporters.

CMS said other organisations were not available to all refugees, notably those in the Kutina centre. This is a "political decision aimed at intimidating, marginalising and distancing organisations which are publicly speaking about problems faced by refugees and the unlawful treatment of refugees by Interior Ministry staff," said Julija Kranjec of CMS.

"A few months ago, the ministry asked in court that the Are You Syrious? organisation be banned and now it's trying to obstruct the work of CMS and organisations which are warning about human rights violations," said Ivan Novosel of the Human Rights House.

CMS and Are You Syrious? are pushing for prosecuting those responsible in last year's death of Afghan migrant girl Madine Hosseini, whose case is currently before the European Court of Human Rights, said Kranjec.

CMS has been supporting refugees for 15 years, facilitating the integration of people in the reception centres and thus far over 1,000 asylum seekers have participated in CMS activities.

Its representatives said CMS was participating in the Interior Ministry's Integration Action Plan and its implementation was now in question.

The plan's education measures are necessary to build a better society and prevent hysteria and fact manipulation against migrants, said Kranjec.

Croatia, the Interior Ministry and the police have the duty to respect the rights of human rights organisations and defenders, added Novosel.

CMS demands that the ministry extend the agreement allowing them access to the reception centres.

For more on migrant crisis, click here.