ZAGREB, December 10, 2018 - Social Democratic Party president Davor Bernardić and MOST leader Božo Petrov agreed on Monday that parliament should have discussed the Global Compact on Migration, but while Bernardić strongly pushed for it, Petrov said it represented a threat to Croatia's security, and Miro Kovač of the ruling HDZ told them they failed to launch a discussion on the document and that they were manipulating and misleading the public.

Bernardić said that when the agenda included topics on which the HDZ could not ideologically agree within its ranks, those topics were pushed aside. He said parliament could still discuss "such an important global agreement." He said that by avoiding a debate, some were bringing unrest into the public sphere, scaring citizens with migrants and trying to score political points. He said migrants did not wish to stay in Croatia.

Bernardić said the Global Compact was not a typical agreement. "It is not signed and it is not ratified, but is a catalogue of measures referring to legal migration and UN member states can choose whether to incorporate them and which are the most acceptable to them."

He said discussing the Global Compact did not suit the HDZ-led ruling majority "because they don't want to confront the radically conservative citizens who voted for them and who see the agreement differently than the government."

Petrov said the Global Compact was a threat to the security of Croatia and its citizens. "Since 2015, our neighbouring countries dealt with the migrant problem together with Croatia, yet today they refuse to go to Marrakesh. Why, if everything about this agreement is all right?"

He said the US, which was Croatia's partner on its journey to independence, did not want to be part of the Global Compact. "Who will we ask for help when all neighbouring countries don't want to be part of that pact? Juncker, whose idea is that not all EU member states are equal?" Petrov wondered why the Global Compact was not discussed at a parliamentary plenary session.

Kovač said Bernardić and Petrov could have submitted an interpellation or asked that a discussion on the Global Compact be put on parliament's agenda. He added that a discussion on the document was organised by the Foreign Affairs Committee at his initiative, and accused Petrov and Bernardić of manipulation and disinformation.

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ZAGREB, December 10, 2018 - Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović is attending the Marrakesh migration conference. He said that until now the UN had never systematically dealt with migration and that if it had, perhaps the big migration crisis which hit Europe in 2015 could have been avoided.

"This is a global problem which the United Nations has decided to start dealing with. The pace it will take is uncertain and how long it will take is also uncertain. However, it's a fact that a solution to a global challenge can be sought only globally," Božinović told Croatian reporters ahead of a meeting on Monday and Tuesday at which representatives of over 100 countries are expected to endorse the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

Asked if one should be afraid of this document, he said there was "absolutely nothing" to fear about it.

"It is a document which I would say is a process of regulating migration in the future so that we don't have what we have on Croatian borders today. On the one hand, there are countries from which people are coming and one should address why they are coming, how to help them stay in their countries. On the other hand, there are countries which want the workforce as well as countries which, like Croatia, are transit countries, and these matters must be regulated."

Božinović said that from the start Croatia's policy had been not to allow illegal entry and strong diplomatic activity. "We have managed to raise awareness in the EU of the issue of countries on the Balkan route because the issue of migration through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia wouldn't have been on the agenda without Croatia's engagement."

He said that in Marrakesh he would talk with representatives of the countries from which migrants were coming, such as Algeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey so as to, "not just bilaterally but also at EU level", focus efforts on helping them keep their citizens.

Asked why many countries would not endorse the Global Compact, Božinović said "the majority of EU member states support the agreement" and took part in its preparation. "I think it's a delicate issue. However, Croatia is very clear and transparent about this. We won't allow illegal migration but we are with all those who wish to resolve this issue at the source."

"It is a fact that many actors are using this issue for internal political breakthroughs by releasing news that are unrealistic and untrue. There are also attempts to scare people with the migrant issue but everyone who lives in Croatia knows that we are very firm about this, that we will stay firm and that there's no need to believe those spreading fake news. Migration is here, it won't go away, but the organisation of the Croatian police and the Croatian state guarantees all our citizens and all of Croatia's guests that they will be safe."

Božinović said arrests for trafficking in humans had jumped 88% from 2017 and that this showed how efficient Croatian police were.

"I am sure that we have a realistic policy focused on the well-being of Croatian citizens and if the world comes together about this issue sooner or later, if everyone defuses tensions a little, I'm sure we will start coming closer to solutions. Let's be realistic. Whatever anyone claims, if the EU hadn't reached an agreement with Turkey and if Turkey hadn't closed its borders, who knows what Europe would look like today," he said.

You can find more on Croatia’s migration policies in our special section.

ZAGREB, December 7, 2018 - The Mayor of Petrinja Darinko Dumbović told reporters on Friday that town authorities had rejected an application by the Interior Ministry (MUP) for a building permit for a migrant centre to be built in the former refugee camp Mala Gorica and underlined that nothing can be built in the area that is not acceptable for the city.

"I was informed this morning by the department head that the application is incomplete and that it has been rejected," Dumbović said.

Asked whether the town would issue the building permit once the application was completed, Dumbović said that the "state can issue a building permit based on the minister's decision. The county can do that too, however, I want them all to know that nothing can be built in the Petrinja area that is not acceptable for the town."

He added that as a once displaced person himself he empathises with the displaced persons coming to Croatia. "However, Petrinja cannot be Croatia's destination for all its problems. First displaced persons, then a dumping ground for nuclear waste. Displaced persons are coming to Croatia without any order, without documents ... we have to know who is coming and why," he added.

He underscored that it was up to Petrinja residents whether an asylum-seekers’ centre would be built near Petrinja.

The opposition in Petrinja have criticised Dumbović for allegedly negotiating with the state about the migrant centre project behind Petrinja residents' backs. Dumbović in return has sued for slander.

The MUP's Schengen coordination and EU funds department adopted a decision in July to allocate funding for the implementation of the project "Establishing infrastructure and strengthening capacities for an asylum centre in Mala Gorica as part of the European Commission's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund," the Jutarnji List daily reported on Friday.

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

ZAGREB, December 7, 2018 - Croatia is fulfilling all the obligations it took on regarding the EU's migrant policies and no new demands are being put to it regarding migrant policies, Interior Minister Davor Božinović said in Brussels on Thursday.

As far as Croatia is concerned, it is doing everything it undertook to do in 2015 and we are giving our maximum contribution to all the main components of Europe's migration policy, with regard to the prevention of illegal migrations, that is, protection of the external borders, as well as with regard to the issue of solidarity with other member states," Božinović said in Brussels where he was attending a meeting of the EU Home Affairs Council.

He explained that solidarity was reflected in the fact that Croatia had integrated 152 people, Syrian refugees, through resettlement from Turkey, as well as about 80 people who had been relocated from Italy.

Asked whether Croatia had been asked to take on more migrants, Božinović said that that was out of the question.

"That is out of the question. That was taken out of the report on the implementation of the European migration programme. There were some ideas of that nature but they are primarily directed at those countries that haven't shown even an iota of solidarity. Croatia allows legal migrations to the point of it being sustainable for Croatian society and is doing it in such a way that it is not causing any resistance. These people have been integrated, children are going to school and there is no drama over the issue of migrants in Croatia whatsoever," he said.

He underscored that Croatia was confirming its credibility in all relevant elements and that today it was publicly commended for that. "Today Croatia was publicly commended by the chair of the Council of the EU and several other countries for the work of its border police. There was even a proposal that the expertise and experience Croatia's border police have, be shared with other member states," he said.

Božinović also said that he had spoken with some of his counterparts in the EU about the Global Compact on Migration that will be adopted next week in Marrakesh and the fear that it is causing in some member states.

"The thing that sets Croatia apart from other countries that some people in Croatia are referring to, such as Austria and Italy, is that those countries have hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants on their territory and they have their view of that problem. We need a common approach to that global problem that can only be dealt with globally and so far, no one has created any other global organisation but the UN," Božinović concluded.

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

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.