The commander of the Cordula Jacob tanker, allegedly a Croatian captain, is under investigation by the prosecution in Rome for failing to assist the shipwrecked. About 117 people eventually drowned, including ten women, one of whom was pregnant, and two children, including one infant, reports 24sata.hr on February 10, 2019.

According to Slobodna Dalmacija, the investigation was initially launched against the Italian Coast Guard, but after obtaining documents and listening to radio messages, it was redirected towards the Croatian seaman whose name is not known to the public.

On 18 January, the ship was sailing in the Mediterranean Sea, not far from the Libyan coast, about 42 miles north of Garabulli. The surviving three migrants – one from the Gambia and two from Ghana – claim that there were 120 people on a dinghy, that the smugglers had set them to sail without life jackets, that the dinghy lost air while on the sea, that the shipwrecked people fell one by one into the cold sea and soon drowned.

During the rescue operation, the closest merchant vessel Cordula Jacob was alarmed. According to the Italian military authorities, at the time it was 36.5 miles from the dinghy, about two hours of sailing, and could, by the same estimates, reach the shipwreck before the helicopter and possibly save more people.

It is not known why the commander hesitated and what he was told and asked to do by either Libyan or Italian naval authorities. Since Libya has established control over its maritime zone, merchant ships hesitate to come to aid because they can lose far more time than is necessary for receiving and transferring the shipwrecked, and shipowners do not measure time with a chronometer but instead with money.

The Italian naval authorities have allegedly managed to convince the commander of Cordula Jacob to change course and go towards the shipwreck only after threatening him to never again be able to sail into an Italian or Libyan port, according to La Repubblica.

Translated from 24sata.hr.

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

ZAGREB, February 6, 2019 - The local authorities in Una-Sana Canton, northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, have warned that they have no more capacity to accept new irregular migrants and called on the state government in Sarajevo to take on the responsibility for migrant centres in the area.

The cantonal task force in charge of managing the migrant crisis called on the state-level Security Ministry to take over the control over the migrant reception centres in the towns of Bihać, Velika Kladuša and Cazin.

The cantonal authorities insist that the migrant tide must be put under control and that quotas for accommodation of migrants must be respected in line with available capacities.

Una-Sana Canton is due to cater for up to 3,200 migrants.

The largest reception centre is in the "Bira" factory in Bihać and has the capacity for 1,500 persons. However, it is already catering for nearly 2,000.

A few days ago, a mass fight erupted involving hundreds of migrants, and tens of them were injured.

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

ZAGREB, February 5, 2019 - Migrant entrepreneurship has great potential, but in Croatia that is a marginal topic and there are several obstacles preventing it from developing, above all administrative and financial obstacles, it was said at a panel discussion on Tuesday.

Mirela Alpeza, the director of the Centre for Development Policy for SMEs (CEPOR) believes that the issue of migrant entrepreneurship is inadequately represented in the public and political spheres, adding that there is a lot of potential in migrant entrepreneurship which isn't being utilised in Croatia.

For example, there are 37 million people living in the EU who were not born there, which makes up for 7% of the total population. In Great Britain, one in seven companies is a migrant company and they employ 14% of the population in that country. In the past 20 years, the number of migrant companies in the USA has increased from 13% to 28%.

The head of the Asylum, Integration and Human Safety Programme at the Centre for Peace Studies, Sara Kekuš, warned of a lack of statistical data on migrant entrepreneurship in Croatia.

She underscored the lack of a strategy and a public policy for the social and economic integration of migrants, adding that the current action plan focuses only on refugees and not migrants.

Kekuš added that the biggest problem facing migrant entrepreneurship is red tape, above all trying to obtain a Personal Identification Number (OIB) or taxation number required to launch or register a business.

In addition, foreigners from third countries are required to deposit at least 100,000 kuna in founding capital to start a public company or as much as 200,000 kuna to start a private company, which for most migrants is impossible.

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

ZAGREB, January 31, 2019 - Europe will have to do more about the resolving of conflicts and finding of peaceful solutions in its neighbourhood, Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović said on the Turkish-Syrian border on Wednesday, visiting two camps in which Turkey has taken in some of the nearly four million Syrian refugees fleeing from military conflicts in their country.

"In the future, Europe will have to do more about conflict solving, about finding peace agreements, because we have seen how much Europe is exposed if its immediate neighbourhood is... destabilised. Unless the situation here is under control, in Europe we can expect various events which we don't want to see," Božinović told Croatian reporters at a Turkish-Syrian border crossing near Kilis, Turkey.

He said Europe must utilise the strength it "realistically has" given that, economically, it is one of the most developed parts of the world. "Europe also has the resources. It's just a matter of agreeing on their use and of how much European, not just narrow national goals, come first to all stakeholders in Europe."

After visiting the refugee camps, Božinović reiterated that Turkey had invested a lot of effort to accommodate almost four million people from Syria. "The logistic support is at a very high level. There are schools, religious facilities, different courses are being organised," he said, adding that in the two camps he visited more than 5,000 children were born in the past few years.

He said the lasting solution was for the people to return to their homes and that he hoped "reason will prevail and that the EU will play a stronger part." "If Europe doesn't play a strong, active role in conflict prevention, we will deal with such crises in future too and that's in nobody's interest."

"In several weeks a delegation from our Interior Ministry will arrive in Turkey and choose another 100 people to come to Croatia. It is important, however, not to make any wrong moves in these integration efforts, because all the failures of the integration policy in the European union came back to haunt us through very radical events in recent history," Božinović said.

He told the press in Turkey that in the 1990s Croatia had one million refugees, mostly from Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also from other parts of Croatia. He said that he had seen efforts made by all parties involved and a great amount of humanity. Božinović said that regardless of the fact that Turkey was doing all that it could, there was no place like home.

Božinović visited the two refugee camps outside Nizip and Kilis, each accommodating approximately 4,000 people, and held talks with camp administrators and refugees.

Most of refugees that the Croatian media talked to there want to go back to Syria but have no means to do that.

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

ZAGREB, January 30, 2019 - During talks with his Turkish counterpart Suleyman Soylu in Ankara on Tuesday, Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović underscored that Turkey, particularly due to its care for almost four million refugees, was Croatia's and also the European Union's strategic partner. "Croatia values Turkey's efforts in resolving the refugee crisis," Božinović said after the meeting at Turkey's interior ministry.

Both ministers underlined that this was their second meeting following the UN conference in Marakesh where they had also discussed bilateral relations and strengthening cooperation in the field of security and migration management. "Migration remains the leading challenge that requires a comprehensive response, particularly when it comes to illegal migration and smuggling networks that have recently intensified their activities on alternative routes," Božinović said.

Soylu recalled the historical ties between Croatia and Turkey, adding that relations with Croatia would continue to be important in the future too. "We have similar thoughts. We had an opportunity to discuss relations between Croatia and Turkey. We exchanged opinions on the issues of terrorism and drug smuggling, and agreed to fight that together," he said.

He expressed hope that when Croatia chairs the Council of the EU in 2020, Turkey would progress toward the European Union, particularly because the presidents of the two countries had already agreed to intensify relations.

Božinović said that security would be one of Croatia's priorities during its EU presidency, including migration, border security, the fight against terrorism, organised and cybercrime.

On Wednesday, the Croatian delegation will visit refugee camps on the Syrian border.

According to UNHCR data, there are currently 3.6 million registered Syrian refugees in Turkey. According to an EU-Turkey agreement, Turkey receives six billion euro from Europe and Croatia has so far paid in 5.7 euro million for that purpose. In the fourth quarter of this year, Croatia will contribute an additional 250,000 euro and a further 3 million euro in a total of 10 instalments from 2019 to 2023.

According to data from the Croatian Interior Ministry, 152 Syrians have been integrated into Croatian society to date following a 2015 decision that has been implemented by the present government. In October 2017, the government decided to accept an additional 100 refugees.

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

ZAGREB, January 23, 2019 - Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović met with his Albanian and Montenegrin counterparts, Sander Lleshaj and Mevludin Nuhodžić, in Zagreb on Tuesday, discussing cooperation in preventing illegal migration.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, Božinović said that they had agreed on "more or less everything" and that now they needed to "implement what will raise our cooperation to a higher level and increase our resilience to challenges."

The meeting was the continuation of dialogue that was stepped up last year, particularly about migration which has intensified on the Eastern Mediterranean or Western Balkans route since the end of 2017.

Božinović said that Croatia, as an EU member, had also stepped up dialogue with European institutions to draw attention to the importance of the southeast of Europe when it came to illegal migration.

Until last year, European institutions had mostly been focused on the Central Mediterranean migration route towards Italy and the Western Mediterranean route towards Spain, Božinović said, adding that they had realised then that they should also concentrate on the Western Balkans as the only land route and its potential to be used by the largest number of migrants.

The three ministers exchanged information on migration, saying that all three countries had recorded increases in the number of illegal migrants. In Croatia, their number is nearly 70 percent higher than in 2017. Lleshaj said that Albania had recorded six times more migrants than in 2017, and Nuhodžić said that Montenegro had also recorded an increase.

"Albania and Montenegro are very important to us because the illegal migrants who reach these countries soon turn up on the Croatian border, either with Serbia or more often and in greater numbers on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina," Božinović said.

Last year Croatia recorded 619 cases of human trafficking, an increase of 71 percent over 2017.

Božinović said that they also discussed the change in the structure of migrants, adding that most of the migrants who had reached the three countries came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq. He said this meant that in most cases these people could not be described as refugees because they were mostly economic migrants trying to reach their destinations in Western Europe.

"On the one hand this is legitimate, but on the other, given the policy of the EU which wants to stop illegal migration and which is increasingly investing in the protection of its external borders, it's something that we have to cope with," Božinović said. "These are the issues we will have to cope with in the decades to come. No country can deal with this alone and that's why cooperation is needed on a regional and wider level, either European or global," he added.

Božinović said that the countries of Southeastern Europe, which are candidates for EU membership, should not be ignored in discussions on these issues. He said that some of the initiatives had produced concrete results, adding that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro had for the first time been granted funding from the EU to increase their border control capacity.

Recalling that earlier this month the European Commission had approved a 100-million-euro fund for operational cooperation in fighting human smuggling, Božinović said that one of the criteria for receiving funding was a joint application by member states and third countries.

The three ministers also discussed the possibility of Albania and Montenegro using funding from pre-accession funds.

Lleshaj said it was most important to concentrate on the scale of illegal migration in Albania to reduce the flow of migrants to the EU. "We know that if we close the land border the flow will be diverted across the sea border. If we take all these facts into account, we are ready to strengthen trilateral cooperation. With Croatia's mentorship, we could have better access to EU funding," the Albanian minister said.

Nuhodžić said that migration challenges continued to have a global dimension and that no country could effectively combat illegal migration without cooperating with other countries. "All three countries, being NATO members, share security risks and have an obligation to coordinate their activities in tackling these challenges," the Montenegrin interior minister said.

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

ZAGREB, January 16, 2019 - Thanks to the efforts of the police, emergency medical services, firefighters and Winter Road Maintenance, six children, five women and four men who illegally entered Croatia as migrants have been rescued from severe winter weather, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

Police caught a number of persons in need of medical assistance on Plješivica mountain in severe weather on Tuesday afternoon. Given the inaccessible terrain and high snow, firefighters and Winter Road Maintenance were called in to clear the snow.

The children aged 1 to 10 and the women received medical assistance on the scene before being taken to Gospić General Hospital. Two women were hospitalised while the other persons are at a local police station for identification.

The Interior Ministry last month warned that the winter weather could be fatal for everyone, notably vulnerable groups, attempting to illegally enter Croatia.

Today the ministry called on NGOs and others doing humanitarian work with migrants on the Balkan route to inform them about the rules for legally entering Croatia and to warn them about the dangers of attempting to enter illegally.

More news on the migrant situation in Croatia and the region can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 14, 2019 - Six Albanian migrants who were accommodated at the Ježevo registration centre for refugees and migrants near Zagreb were placed in investigative custody on Monday after causing a brawl in the centre and assaulting the police, Zagreb County Court stated on Monday.

They were remanded in custody after being declared a flight risk.

The incident happened at 8 am this past Wednesday, after one of the six migrants who are Albanian citizens assaulted a policeman on duty. The attacker was supported by one of his compatriots. However, the two attackers were overpowered by the police officers on duty. A half an hour later, another four Albanians in the accommodation centre caused another scuffle, attacking two police officers. The other policemen arrived at the scene and overpowered the assailants, according to the information provided by the court.

Three police officers sustained light injuries in the incidents.

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

ZAGREB, December 27, 2018 - Interior Minister Davor Božinović and Jesuit Refugee Service director Tvrtko Barun on Thursday signed an agreement on cooperation in the integration of persons relocated from Turkey whereby Croatia, according to the minister, is confirming it is an open country and that it is willing to receive a certain number of persons who meet international protection requirements.

Croatia is confirming the continuity of its policy of receiving people in need of international aid and that it can relate to the problems of people who cannot have safe lives in their home countries, but it is doing so in a rational and sustainable way, Božinović said after the signing ceremony at the ministry.

He recalled that in 2015 the government adopted a decision on the integration of 150 refugees but that the decision was implemented by the next government in 2017. In October 2017, the government adopted a decision on the integration of another 100 refugees and the agreement signed today applies to them, given that the initial 152 refugees from Syria have been successfully integrated, he said.

That is what Croatia committed to do, and when it comes to the relocation of refugees from Italy, Croatia has expressed greater willingness than was the willingness of those people to come to Croatia, given that only 82 have been integrated, Božinović said.

The integration process requires the cooperation of a number of institutions, he said, adding that there have been no problems with integration in local communities. "It's in our interest that those people start leading normal lives, that children go to school and their parents work," he said, adding that Croatia, although a transit country, wanted to contribute to an internationally acceptable model for dealing with the refugee issue.

However, Croatia cannot withstand or take on the burden of the unsuccessful migration policy on the global front which we have been witnessing this century, Božinović said.

On the one hand, refugee relocation is an expression of international solidarity and a sharing of responsibility with the countries hit hardest by refugee pressure, while on the other it is a tool for managing migration so as to prevent human trafficking, Božinović said.

"In this way Croatia confirms its policy, which has been presented many times both to the Croatian and the international public, that Croatia is an open country, but that it will protect its borders. Croatia will be able to draw 430,000 euro in aid to integration activities led by the Jesuit Refugee Service," Božinović said.

The head of the Jesuit Refugee Service for Southeast Europe, Tvrtko Barun, said they were happy and proud to be able to put their knowledge and experience at the disposal of Croatia, the Ministry of the Interior and the non-governmental sector to help with the integration of about 100 refugees to be resettled from Turkey to Croatia.

The refugee integration programme includes learning of the Croatian language and employment as the final goal for long-term integration.

Barun said it would help refugees to become effectively integrated into society, receive money for everyday living expenses and contribute to society in which they have found safety and protection.

Unlike irregular migrants, these people know that Croatia will be the country of their future and as soon as they come, they will start the process of integration with language learning. Children are included in classes very quickly and can speak the language well within two or three months, helping their parents to integrate sooner, Barun said.

He said that finding work would not be a problem because a lot of employers were interested in cooperation.

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

ZAGREB, December 21, 2018 - The Electronic Media Council said on Friday its members had received death threats following their decision to take six local television stations off the air for up to 24 hours over hate speech targeting migrants.

The programme in question was aired on November 6 and the six local TV stations had their broadcasting licences temporarily stripped on December 3. Three TV stations were taken off the air for 24 hours and three for four hours.

The threats were made by an as yet unidentified person or persons. They have been reported to the police and an investigation has been launched, the Council said in a statement.

The Council said that it would continue to perform its duties professionally and would not tolerate any hate speech in the public media sector regardless of its source or target.

Last month, after analysing the content of the talk show, which dealt with the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the Electronic Media Council decided that claims made in the show, hosted by Velimir Bujanec, constituted hate speech because they described migrants as terrorists and criminals and as people who intentionally spread infectious diseases. The show's guests were Frano Ćirko, who was introduced as the leader of an organisation called Generacija Obnove, and Zoran Grgić, introduced as an independent analyst.

"The show host did not distance himself from such hate-mongering rhetoric, except for describing it as 'a bit radical', which cannot be considered an appropriate warning that such rhetoric is not allowed... the host himself set the tone of the discussion and incited hate-mongering, discriminatory and humiliating rhetoric against migrants," the Council said.

Its chair Josip Popovac stressed that the Council's decision in no way violated the freedom of speech, noting that there were no forbidden topics but that they should be dealt with professionally, which was not the case with the show in question.

Speaking of the accountability of the guests on the said show, Popovac said that he agreed with the proposal to report the case to the Chief State Prosecutor, noting that "such abuse of public media is unacceptable".

More news on the media issues in Croatia can be found in our Business section.