ZAGREB, April 3, 2019 - Refugee protection nongovernmental organisations on Wednesday published their fifth report on violent and illegal push-backs of refugees from Croatia and systematic human rights violations on the EU's borders, demanding that the Croatian Ministry of the Interior and the Police Directorate stop interpreting Croatian and EU laws in a selective and ill-intentioned way.

Collective, unlawful and violent police push-backs of refugees on Croatian borders have continued despite consistent warnings by numerous international and domestic organisations, representatives of the Centre for Peace Studies, Are You Syrious?, the Welcome Initiative and the Italian Consortium of Solidarity (ICS) told a news conference outside the Ministry of the Interior in Zagreb.

Tea Vidović of the Centre for Peace Studies and the Welcome Initiative said that collective refugee expulsions definitely happened and that no one questioned that any more.

"All testimonies indicate that systematic and organised collective push-backs of refugees from EU territory are happening," said Vidović.

Apart from such testimonies, the NGOs' report also includes a legal analysis as to how Croatian and EU laws should be interpreted and why actions by the Ministry of the Interior are unlawful.

Antonija Potočki of the Are You Syrious NGO said that they were speaking in the name of some 10,000 women, children and men who were expelled from Croatia in 2018 alone.

Many of them were given a "Croatian welcome", which, according to numerous testimonies, included brutal beatings with truncheons, punching and kicking, stripping refugees naked, taking their water and food supplies, threatening them with weapons, shooting, theft and destruction of refugees' personal items, and illegal and violent push-backs of families, minors, and sick and elderly people, Potočki said.

Matej Iscra of the ICS said that his organisation had collected the testimonies of several asylum-seekers on a number of cases of illegal expulsion by Italian police in the period from June to October 2018.

All the cases were characterised by strong arbitrariness on the part of Italian police and the fact that they were chain expulsions, with Italian police handing over migrants to Slovenian police, who handed them over to Croatian police, who returned them to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iscra said.

The migrants testified about verbal and physical abuse by Croatian police during the process of expulsion. Italian police said that public security officials in Trieste described those procedures as correct and as readmission, Iscra said.

The refugee protection NGOs published their first report on unlawful refugee expulsions in 2016.

More news about migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 25, 2019 - Police found in the Plješivica Mountain area on Sunday 15 persons from Libya and Tunisia who had illegally entered Croatia, including a Tunisian illegal migrant woman who they claimed was pregnant, and transferred them to Gospić – the woman to the hospital because of her poor condition and the rest to the police station.

In the evening, the hospital notified the police that the woman was not pregnant.

Speaking to Hina on Monday, hospital head Sandra Čubelić said the woman was born in 1985 and that she was brought in for emergency treatment because she was exhausted and mildly dehydrated. The woman was released after receiving intravenous therapy, she added.

Lika-Senj County police spokeswoman Maja Brozičević told Hina the 15 migrants had illegally entered Croatia from Bosnia and Herzegovina. "They will probably be deported, unless one of them says their life would be in danger upon returning to the country of origin and applies for asylum in Croatia."

Asked if the information that the woman was pregnant had been a misunderstanding or a deliberately false report, Brozičević said the border police in Korenica was notified around 1.30 p.m. on Sunday about several persons in the Plješivica Mountain area, including a heavily pregnant woman.

The police, she said, found "13 men, one child and one woman and the migrants were shouting and repeating that the woman was pregnant, and later we heard that she was wrapped in several blankets. Pregnant or not, we helped them all and are acting in line with national and European legislation."

More news about the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 20, 2019 - On the occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, marked on March 21, several women’s NGOs, including the ROSA Centre of Women War Victims, the Belgrade-based Women in Black NGO, the Women's Network Croatia and the Rog Social Centre from Slovenia, have called on EU member states to open their borders and take in refugees/migrants who are fleeing war and seeking to save themselves and their families.

"We are asking Croatia to treat refugees/migrants humanly, to make their stay in the country easier, to grant international protection based on laws and not political stances, to apply regulations on special guarantees to the most vulnerable groups, to stop police pressure and torture of refugees/migrants and those who are helping them, to enable everyone who wishes free passage to pass freely and anyone wishing to stay, to do so," the NGOs said in a press release.

The women's groups recalled that they too were refugees and could again become that if the erosion of humanity and tolerance of violence against refugees/migrants continues.

The increased wave of refugees/migrants in Europe, which has been going on for four years, has shown that many countries and individuals have failed the test of humanity and solidarity.

"Wire fences, walls and hate speech and violence against refugees have become Europe's symbols. Growing hate, racism and far-right movements are the current state of affairs," the NGOs warned.

"We most sharply condemn the behaviour toward refugees/migrants at the borders across the EU, where they are exposed to terror, where their right to freedom is violated and they are not offered protection that all countries are obliged to provide according to international agreements and domestic laws.

"We expect EU countries to open their borders and accept refugees/migrants, who are running away from war and seeking salvation for themselves and their families and a peaceful and safe life worthy of man," the press release said.

More news about the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.

Accommodation of asylum-seekers in Croatia, courses in Croatian language and culture, workshops and mentoring for better understanding and adaptation to social life, educational, creative and sports activities for children and adults, support for school children, help in the process of validating certificates and diplomas, mentoring in employment, self-employment and starting startups in Croatia – all this is part of the programmes which will take place at the former police station at the Gajnice neighbourhood in Zagreb, which has been unused for the past twenty years, reports Večernji List on March 18, 2019.

The House of Hope, the future gathering place for foreigners who have been granted international protection in Croatia, has created quite a stir in the neighbourhood. As soon as they heard that asylum-seekers were coming, many of the locals started protesting, and the topic is often discussed in heated terms on social networks.

People say they most fear for their own safety. But many do not know the details or the background of this project, who is the organiser and what will exactly happen there. Calling it "the asylum-seekers centre" is not really correct, says Mihal Kreko, the pastor of the Baptist Church of Zagreb, which is leading the project.

The Ministry of the Interior, which has been managing the state-owned property for the past years, has granted them the right to use the facility for ten years without fee, provided they renovate the building. They then formulated a programme to help achieve, according to the contract, “a better and happier life in Croatia.”

“The house will be open to all marginalised and vulnerable groups, not necessarily just asylum-seekers. We will work with them to adapt them to our culture, but also the faith because many have switched to Christianity,” says Pastor Kreko, adding that they will organise the so-called meals on wheels programme, i.e. delivery of food to the elderly and the needy.

To those who are afraid of possible incidents in the neighbourhood, he replies that there is no stricter migration check system than the one in Croatia. “Before they get asylum in this country, everybody has to go through a two-to-three-year investigation process", says Kreko, adding that the house will accommodate the grand total of eight people.

The Ministry announced that the building was used as a police station until the end of 1998, and since then the Ministry has repeatedly asked the relevant state bodies to decide what they wanted to do with the facility. From 2008 and 2010, a tender for sale was published, but no offer was received. Now the house will be used, among other purposes, for the temporary accommodation of people with international protection.

More news about the migrant issues can be found in the Politics section.

Translated from Večernji List (reported by Petra Balija, Jelena Pišonić Babić).

ZAGREB, March 15, 2019 - Croatian non-governmental organisations the Centre for Peace Studies (CMS) and Are You Syrious (AYS) issued a joint statement on Thursday drawing attention to three dangerous aspects of Croatian police behaviour: dehumanisation, torture and humiliation of refugees, rhetorical legalisation of violence, and discrediting organisations that warn of such actions.

The statement was prompted by Interior Minister Davor Božinović's response to the international human right watchdog Amnesty International's report on violence and abuse experienced by refugees and migrants along the Balkan route.

Božinović said in his response that Croatia was successfully controlling and protecting its border in line with international and national law and that his ministry's priority was to ensure legal and sustainable migration in cooperation with neighbouring countries for the purpose of maintaining security.

The CMS and AYS accused Božinović of selectively interpreting legal provisions in an attempt to give the impression that police actions are legal when in fact they violate basic human rights.

"The Ministry of the Interior is actively trying to silence citizens who question the legality of some of the police actions, portraying the CMS and AYS as organisations associated with illegal migration," the two NGOs said in their statement.

"After footage from Border Violence Monitoring clearly showed Croatian police driving refugees away from Croatia, pushing around exhausted individuals, or footage of Croatian police forcing refugees on their knees to chant 'Dinamo Zagreb!' and 'For the homeland ready!', and after numerous medical documents about fractures and serious injuries suffered by refugees during their encounters with police truncheons on the border, it is unacceptable and utterly disgusting to claim that Croatian police do not use force and power against them," the statement said.

Commenting on Božinović's statement that all of the 202 complaints of violations of refugees' human rights received by the ministry were unfounded, the two NGOs said that they themselves had made some of those complaints, categorically stating that their complaints contained precise information on the times and places where Croatian police found refugees and expelled them by force back to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The CMS and AYS noted that Croatia had so far been criticised by four international organisations over violent expulsions of refugees and migrants to Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Human Rights Watch, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, and most recently by Amnesty International. They also recalled criticisms made at a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg late last year.

The international organisations reported thousands of documented cases of illegal expulsions of refugees and migrants from Croatia since 2016. The UNHCR said that last year at least 5,537 persons were forcibly returned to Serbia, while according to some indicators the number of illegal expulsions to Bosnia and Herzegovina could be twice as high, the CMS and AYS said.

More news on the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 15, 2019 - In February 2019, the number of detections of illegal border crossings on Europe’s four main migratory routes fell 58% from the previous month, while detections of illegal border crossings on the Western Balkans route in the first two months of this year were 40% more than a year ago.

In February, there were 3,560 illegal border crossing detections on the four main migratory routes, down 58% on the month, in large part due to poor weather conditions in parts of the Mediterranean Sea, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) said on Thursday.

The total for the first two months of the year was roughly in line with a year ago at 11,800.

The Eastern Mediterranean route accounted for the largest percentage of detections of irregular migrants in February, down 31% from the previous month to 2,250. Because of a high number of arrivals in January, the total number of detections on this route rose by one-third in the first two months of 2019 compared to a year ago to almost 5,500.

Two out of every five detected migrants in this corridor were nationals of Afghanistan, usually arriving by sea, while one out of every five was of Turkish nationality, mainly crossing the land border, said Frontex.

Rough weather conditions led to an 80% drop in the number of irregular migrants on the Western Mediterranean route. However, due to a high number of arrivals in January, mainly reaching Spain, the total for the first two months of 2019 stood at more than 4,900, or 83% above the figure from the same period of last year.

Nationals of Morocco accounted for the largest number of detected migrants on this route, said Frontex.

The Central Mediterranean continued to experience falling numbers of irregular migrants. There were 60 migrants detected on this route in February, 70% less than in January. This was the lowest monthly number in nine years. Bangladeshis and Tunisians were the most represented nationalities reaching Italy.

There were more than 420 detections of illegal border crossings recorded on the Western Balkans route in February. The total for the first two months reached nearly 1,200 or 40% more than a year ago. Nationals of Afghanistan accounted for the largest share of migrants detected on this route.

More news on the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 13, 2019 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović said on Wednesday that Croatia protects its borders like any other country. "If any of the European countries wants illegal migrants, we can open a corridor and let them through as we did in 2015. But we know that this isn't so, that, for example, Germany and Austria don't want them, that Slovenia and Hungary have erected wire fences. Every country in the world protects its borders and so does Croatia, and we will not allow illegal migration," Božinović said in an interview with Croatian Radio.

Speaking of the latest report by the human rights watchdog Amnesty International, which accused Croatia and other countries of violence against migrants, Božinović dismissed the accusations, saying that his ministry had immediately responded to the organisation's report.

"Whenever any irregularities or unacceptable behaviour are identified, as is the case of a police officer who tried to 'teach' migrants football chants, they are penalised. The young police officer has promptly been removed from service and another two are facing disciplinary action. On the other hand, there are quite a few examples of Croatian police assisting migrants, such as the case of a badly injured migrant who was rescued in rugged terrain and was hospitalised," the minister said.

Speaking of the case of Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Gabrijela Žalac, who hit a 10-year-old girl while driving through a residential area in the eastern town of Vinkovci on Saturday, Božinović said that the police had done their part of the job professionally.

He said that the police cannot bring charges if there are no grounds. "I have consulted reports on similar cases of car accidents that resulted in the injury of pedestrians and have found many cases in which the police did not bring criminal charges because there were no grounds in those particular cases. The case of Minister Žalac is now in the County Attorney's hands."

Žalac was found to be driving with a driving licence that had expired in 2016. Božinović said that 1,759 drivers had been fined this year for driving without a valid driving licence, adding that the annual average was over 13,000.

More news about the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 13, 2019 - European governments are complicit in "the systematic, unlawful and frequently violent pushbacks and collective expulsions of thousands of asylum seekers" from Croatia to squalid and unsafe refugee camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the human rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) said in a report published on Wednesday.

"Currently around 5,500 women, men and children are trapped in two small Bosnian towns near the Croatian border, Bihać and Velika Kladuša, living in defunct former factories without basic amenities. Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot offer them adequate protection or living conditions and the improvised camps are unhygienic, lacking hot water, medical care and sufficient food," the London-based organisation said in the report entitled "Pushed to the edge: Violence and abuse against refugees and migrants along Balkan Route."

The report details "how, by prioritizing border control over compliance with international law, European governments are not just turning a blind eye to vicious assaults by the Croatian police, but also funding their activities. In so doing, they are fuelling a growing humanitarian crisis on the edge of the European Union."

“To understand where European government’s priorities lie, one only needs to follow the money. Their financial contribution towards humanitarian assistance is dwarfed by the funds they provide for border security which includes equipping Croatian border police and even paying their salaries,” said Massimo Moratti, Director of Research for Amnesty International’s Europe Office.

“Meanwhile people fleeing war and persecution are beaten and robbed by the Croatian police and forcibly pushed back to legal limbo, left at the mercy of a failing asylum system in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” AI said, noting that migrants caught in Italy and Slovenia are expelled back to Bosnia and Herzegovina via Croatia.

Many migrants described how they were beaten, had their documents destroyed and possessions stolen in what appears to be a systematic and deliberate policy by Croatian authorities designed to deter future attempts to enter the country.

Bureaucratic obstacles, inadequate legal assistance and limited administrative capacity mean that potential asylum-seekers are unlikely to get their asylum claims processed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most attempt to proceed to other European countries, and the journey is not easy.

"Having previously entered the EU through Greece and Bulgaria and having been abjectly failed by the asylum system there, people exit the EU to continue the journey along the Balkans. In order to reach Slovenia or Italy, where the EU Schengen free movement regime begins, they have to navigate Croatia’s dense forests, fast moving rivers and, in some places, live minefields," the report says.

In the first ten months of 2018, at least 12 people drowned in the Western Balkans, most of them trying to cross the border from Croatia to Slovenia, and dozens more died in other ways, AI said.

"As the allegations of violent pushbacks on the borders have mounted, Croatian authorities have increasingly discouraged public scrutiny of country’s migration practices. Attempts by Croatian public institutions to oversee migration practices at the border have been blocked and organizations working on migrant and refugee rights have been targeted by the authorities," the organisation said.

"NGO volunteers have been harassed, held for hours by police without formal charges and threatened with criminal prosecution. The Ministry of Interior has even accused some NGOs of assisting people to enter Croatia irregularly," it added.

"In spite of these appalling practices at the border, the European Union has continued to allocate significant funds to assist Croatia in its border security infrastructure. The EU has also wilfully ignored the failures of the European asylum system that make these journeys necessary," the report said.

“European leaders can no longer wash their hands of responsibility for the continued collective expulsions and violent pushbacks along the Balkan route that are the result of their determination to fortify EU borders, no matter what the human cost is,” Moratti concluded.

More news about the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.

The footage of a Croatian policeman who is forcing a group of detained migrants to chant "Dinamo Zagreb" is spreading on social networks, reports Index.hr on March 12, 2019.

The Centre for Peace Studies has received a confirmation from the Ministry of Interior that the Croatian police officer was responsible for filming a group of migrants and encouraging them to chant the football fans’ slogan.

The footage was made on 6 March in the area of the Cetingrad border police station. “Given that the persons spoke English well, one of the police officers encouraged them to engage in improper communication and filmed them with the help of a mobile device,” said the police, according to the Centre for Peace Studies.

The Ministry also added that the police would initiate disciplinary proceedings against three police officers who were present, while the policeman who filmed the migrants would be removed from duty. The persons who tried to enter Croatia later returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Here is the police response to questions about the incident.

“Immediately after we received initial information, on Friday, March 8, in order to determine all the relevant facts about the time and place of the controversial incident and before the footage was made public, necessary checks and inquiries were made on the ground and it was established as follows:

The controversial event took place on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in the area covered by the Cetingrad border police station. At the borderline, the police officers noted a group of people who were resting. The police officers warned them that their further progress would represent an illegal crossing of the state border and that they must return. Given that the persons spoke English well, one of the police officers encouraged them to engage in improper communication and filmed them with the help of a mobile device. Given that the police officers prevented their illegal entry into Croatia, the persons left their position and returned into the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Against three of the police officers involved in the event the competent superiors will initiate disciplinary proceedings for a severe violation of the official duty, while the police officer who filmed and acted improperly and inappropriately communicated with the persons will be removed from duty because the disciplinary violation is such that his further stay in the service might harm the interests of the service," wrote the Interior Ministry in the response.

The Karlovac Police Administration is conducting a criminal investigation to determine all the circumstances of the event and stresses that they have repeatedly expressed attitude of zero tolerance to any unlawful behaviour by police officers, adding that they condemn such conduct.

Translated from Index.hr.

More news about the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 8, 2019 - There is still no consensus among European Union member states about reforming the European asylum system, the topic that has been on the agenda for the past three years, Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović said in Brussels on Thursday.

"After three years of talks we can say that the idea about a set of migration laws, including the asylum system, has failed, at least in the term of the present Commission," Božinović said after a meeting of the EU interior ministers.

Carmen Dan, Romania’s Minister of the Interior and the president of the Council of the European Union, also said no progress was made in sharing out the burden of asylum seekers which would replace the existing Dublin regulation.

The Commission and several countries are calling for the adoption of the parts of the package of laws on which consent has been reached, such as setting up a European asylum agency and improving a database with migrant fingerprints.

"I am not sure that a common position has been reached on this either," Božinović said.

The reform is at a stalemate because some member states do not wish to take in asylum seekers, not even in cases of a sudden migrant influx to share a burden with countries on external EU borders.

More news on the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.