April 7, 2023 - Huge crowds have been forming in front of the Zagreb Police Department in Remetinac for days. There are long lines of foreign workers who need to register their residence or obtain documents, without which they cannot start working in Croatia.

In March, the Service for Citizenship and Status Issues of Foreigners was moved to the Novi Zagreb police station. Hundreds of foreign citizens arrive early every morning and wait in line to sort out the paperwork, writes Index.

Now the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) has made an announcement regarding the issue, stating that it will introduce a special regime due to the crowds.

We are publishing the press release in its entirety.

The MUP is introducing appointment booking and the eRedomat service

"The building of the Zagreb Police Department at Petrinjska 30, after the earthquake in Zagreb on March 22, 2020, suffered significant structural damage. Therefore, based on legislative regulations, a decision was made on the complete renovation of the said building, located in the historic urban center of the City of Zagreb. Considering that this particular case is a complete renovation of the building, this implies that before the work starts, the building in question be freed from all persons and things and that the performance of work, not only work related to foreigners but also the work of registering and issuing documents to Croatian citizens, is moved to other business premises.

In this sense, activities related to the movement, stay, and work of foreigners and issuing biometric ID cards were moved to the address Remetinečki gaj 13 in mid-March of this year. Considering the aggravating circumstances that accompany every relocation, and especially the entire business process, believing in the understanding of our citizens, the problem that appears is a consequence of objective circumstances that we cannot always influence. The Zagreb police department is making efforts in terms of an internal reorganization of work and taking various measures to be more efficient, given that it is impossible to predict the number of parties who contact each day to solve their requests, which unfortunately is not always feasible.

Also, in the affairs of foreigners, officers work with the parties from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and in addition to the stated objective circumstances, according to the available data, all citizens who apply regarding the receipt and delivery of a request for a biometric residence permit card, which requires the foreigner's personal presence and a certain duration of the business process itself (e.g., verification of personal data, taking fingerprints, etc.), will be processed on the same day. We emphasize that the listed tasks are only one part of the tasks that are processed daily, since certain business processes and certain requests are also handled electronically. Considering the complexity of the business processes and administrative actions that are carried out, the competent Service processes a large number of requests daily; for example, on April 5, 2023, 154 requests for foreigner's identity cards were received, 117 created identity cards were delivered, and 110 residence permits were issued.

At the same time, the fact remains that the influx of parties at a certain moment plays a significant role in our work. Most of the parties come in the early morning hours, at the beginning of working hours; however, as the cases are resolved, the waiting time becomes acceptable considering all the actions that must be carried out for each party individually, as shown by the photos, which show that it has already been a couple of hours since the beginning of the work of administrative affairs, the waiting time is significantly less.

We are aware that despite the large number of requests that are continuously processed, there are sometimes larger crowds since it is not possible to influence the number of citizens who have decided at a certain moment (even in relation to the scheduled or changed working hours) or to come to file on a certain day a request to resolve status issues. In this sense, in the coming period, i.e., after relocation, the Zagreb Police Department will listen to the needs of citizens to be, despite objective reasons (primarily the number of employees and the number of citizens who contact us), maximally accessible and efficient.

In addition to the objective difficulties of adapting to the new circumstances, in the following days, the service of booking appointments for receiving and collecting foreigner's identity cards and the eRedomat service will be made available, and the working hours will certainly be adjusted depending on the need," stated the MUP press release.

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ZAGREB, 21 Nov, 2021 - A police official in the Zagreb police department, Davor Posilović, said on Sunday that the police were intensively searching for the organisers of Saturday's march staged by anti-vaccine certificate protesters, since the rally was not officially reported.

The police are also searching for assailants who physically attacked a reporter of the RTL commercial broadcaster while he was covering the demonstrations

Intensive actions are being taken to identify potential organisers and to take appropriate steps against them, Posilović told a press conference in Zagreb on Sunday afternoon.

The failure of organisers to report the rally in advance amounts to the violation of the legislation on public assembly.

The police official added pyrotechnic devices had been used during the rally, the organisers failed to bring security guards and the decision on the restrictions of public assembly was breached.

A report on verbal and physical violence against RTL reporter Goran Latković has been lodged with the police in the meantime.

CCTV and video footage of the incident will be examined to identify the perpetrators and the police will interview all witnesses.

 "We are in permanent touch with the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) and other professional associations," Posilović said, adding that all who have any information about the incident can contact the police.

Posilović said that no other incidents targeted against media had been reported to the police.

Nova TV and HTV crews were verbally assaulted at the rally, while a group of protesters took Al Jazeera reporter Nikolina Zavišić's microphone as she was reporting live.

On Saturday evening a group of protesters moved from Zagreb's central square to the part of the city where the HRT public broadcaster is located, demanding to see the HRT director and have their rally covered live and calling for an end to "censorship" by the HRT.

Dissatisfied with the way the HRT covered their protest in the central city square at 3 p.m., the protesters shouted "We want elections", "Referendum and people's rule", "Thieves", "Treason", "God's law is above all laws", demanding to see the HRT director and have their rally covered live. "This is no vaccine, this is poison", someone in the crowd could be heard saying while some protesters said the world was ruled by "Bill Gates, Talmudists and Soros's followers".

The protesters were met by riot police, with a dozen police vehicles blocking access to the HRT building.

Posilović said that demonstrators in the main square also burnt a flag of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) during the protest and that an investigation in this case was under way.

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