Allegations of the abduction and forced expulsion of two Nigerian students to Bosnia by the Croatia police (MUP) has received wide attention in the Croatian media since the Bosnian portal Žurnal broke the story on December 3. More details have emerged, which have led to even more questions, and credibility issues are muddying the narrative.

After yesterday’s official statement from MUP regarding the alleged incident, additional details are emerging, some of which may contradict MUP claims. While the story is being covered extensively in Croatian media, most of the basic questions about this alleged incident haven’t even been addressed.

There are possible credibility issues with a member of the Nigerian group and proven credibility issues with MUP. No witnesses have come forward to corroborate the Nigerian students’ allegations. One member of their group claimed asylum in Croatia on November 27, which may help support the MUP claim that people from third countries are using sports competitions to enter the EU.

However, several world news organizations have disproven MUP’s repeated denials of an aggressive pushback policy toward illegal migrants. Here’s what we still don’t know.

What was the groups’ actual flight itinerary?

According to MUP, the group of five Nigerians, one leader and four students, arrived in Croatia on November 12. The leader and one student departed Croatia via the Zagreb airport on November 17. The students claim that their return flight departed on November 18, which meant that they had arrived on the same flight with the others but wouldn’t be returning to Nigeria on the same flight.

What Zagreb hostel did the students check into?

MUP has not provided the name of the hostel and the students claim that they don’t remember the name, as they had just checked in, before setting off on a stroll through the city.

What date did the students check into that unidentified Zagreb hostel?

MUP claims they checked in on November 16, rather than November 17, as the students claim. Alberto Tanghetti, the organizer of the 5th World InterUniversities Championships in Pula supports the students’ claim and indicated that the students left Pula for Zagreb on November 17 to make their November 18 flight. 

Are there any witnesses to the students’ alleged abduction by Croatian police on the Zagreb tram?

The sight of police removing the students from a tram in a large busy city for no apparent reason (they weren’t disturbing the peace) would have produced witnesses. So far no one has come forward.

Who sent the students their passports?

In yesterday’s statement, MUP claimed that the students checked out of their Zagreb hostel on November 18 and took their passports and belongings with them. However, sources now confirm that the students didn’t have their passports with them when they entered Bosnia. An unidentified friend from the competition sent the students’ passports from the unidentified Zagreb hostel to Bosnia. The students received their passports on November 25, nine days after their alleged abduction and expulsion from Croatia.

Where is the students’ luggage?

If the students weren’t allowed to return to the unidentified Zagreb hostel, the hostel would have had their luggage as well as their passports. They would have packed for a five-day trip. Where is their luggage now?

Why would the Croatian police expel the students to Bosnia, when it would have been much easier, and legal, to allow them to catch their return flights to Nigeria?

It would have been very easy for the Croatian police to physically go with the students to the unidentified Zagreb hostel and confirm they were registered there. In addition, by law, every traveler visiting Croatia must furnish their passports to the front desk (or host) of their accommodations upon arrival, as part of the registration process. That information is reported to MUP, so they should have been able to confirm where the students were staying. Why would the Zagreb police detain the students for hours, for no apparent reason, and allegedly send them in a van to Bosnia? Furthermore, in an interview for Index, Željko Cvrtila, an experienced criminologist, emphasized that the Croatian police could have only legally deported them back to Nigeria, as they had valid visas for their stay in Croatia.

If MUP has no record or evidence that the students crossed the Bosnian border, what does that say about the effectiveness of the MUP effort to control the border?

If MUP has no record of the students’ whereabouts and was not able to intersect the students’ illegal and forced expulsion into Bosnia, it would seem to suggest that Croatia still lacks effective tools, surveillance and manpower to monitor and control illegal movement across the border.

Are there any witnesses who can corroborate the students’ arrival and length of stay in Bosnia?

According to the students, they were abducted by Zagreb police on November 17 and taken in a van to the Bosnian border with a group of illegal migrants. That also means that they have allegedly been in Bosnia for 2 ½ weeks.

Is there additional information on the fourth student who sought asylum in Croatia?

According to MUP, the group leader and one of the four students returned to Nigeria on November 17. Another remained in Croatia and tried to enter Slovenia twice, but was denied entry because he did not have a Schengen passport. MUP claims that he reported his passport lost on November 18 and refused an alleged offer from the MUP central station in Zagreb to contact the Nigerian embassy on his behalf. On November 27, the student returned and filed a claim for asylum and is currently being housed in an asylum center in Zagreb.

Did the students perform competitively at the 5th World InterUniversities Championships?

Zoran Ničeno, Director of Border Security, claims in an interview with Dnevnik Nove TV that they had confirmed with organizers that the students fared very poorly at the 5th World InterUniversities Championships and lost every match. He then implied that they may not have been professionally trained for the sport and were simply using the competition as a way of entering the EU. While varied resources and levels of training can produce performance gaps among contestants in international competitions, videos of the students at the event might reveal their proficiency in the sport they flew to Croatia to compete in.

What about MUP’s claims that the students may have been involved with illegal smugglers?

In the same interview, Ničeno claimed that they have information that the students may have been involved with illegal smugglers. What evidence do they have to support that claim?

Did Bosnian officials offer to help the students return to Nigeria?

Ničeno also claimed that Bosnian officials offered to help the students return home to Nigeria, but they allegedly refused and expressed a desire to return to Croatia and apply for asylum. Did this help offer include buying them one-way tickets home? Bosnian official have not confirmed Ničeno's claims.

Follow our Politics page here to stay updated on this story, MUP activities, and the migrant crisis in Croatia.

ZAGREB, December 5, 2019 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, who is running for her second term in office, at midnight on Wednesday formally launched her campaign in Dražice, in the hinterland of Rijeka, which is her birthplace.

Addressing a crowd in the local cultural centre, the incumbent president recalled that she also launched the campaign for her first term in her birthplace five years ago.

She said during her campaign trail tour this time, she would travel through Croatia from its southernmost peninsula of Prevlaka to the eastern town of Vukovar.

"I believe that Croatia can become one of the most prosperous countries, but that cannot be achieved overnight," she said presenting her seven-point agenda for her re-election.

Commenting on the past five years, the president said that Croatia was no longer in a recession.

"The economic indicators are not the worst in Europe, wages grow higher, although still insufficiently, emigration is abating, and some of those who have left the country are returning home and we have also restored the dignity of war veterans," she said.

She also said that her campaign would be free of arrogance and despondency as well as of divisions.

Croatia's presidential election is set for 22 December.

More news about presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.

December 5, 2019 - Croatia's eastern and coastal parts, or the country's 'green and blue', should be connected by a direct flight between Osijek and Dubrovnik, believe the prefects of Dubrovnik-Neretva County and Vukovar-Srijem County. 

The prefect of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Nikola Dobroslavic, with his deputies Zaklina Marevic and Josko Cebalo and other associates, held a working meeting in Dubrovnik on Monday with Vukovar-Srijem County prefect Bozo Galic and his associates, reports Dubrovniknet.hr.

The meeting was also attended by Ivo Klaic, Head of the Managing Board for the Economy and Sea, Melanija Milic, Director of the RDA DUNEA, Nikolina Karaljevic, Head of the Managing Board for County Affairs and County Assembly, Sandra Pinjuh, Head of the Office of Mayors VSŽ, Ilija Cota, Director of RDA Podolar, ZSA Agro-cluster from VSZ and Rujana Busic Srpak, Director of the Vukovar-Srijem County Tourist Board.

At the meeting on continuing cooperation between Dubrovnik-Neretva and Vukovar-Srijem counties and connecting the "Green and Blue Croatia", they agreed on the direction of further activities for the two counties.

“We want to connect agriculture and tourism. Some products, such as eggs from Slavonia, are already used here. We agreed to work in two directions. We are going with an initiative to establish a daily and year-round flight from Dubrovnik to Osijek. Entrepreneurs would benefit most from such a connection, but it would also allow our citizens and guests to see eastern Slavonia. We also agreed to provide one space for our distribution center for products from eastern Croatia,” said Dobroslavic.

The prefect of Vukovar-Srijem, Bozo Galic, noted that transporting products is one of the main issues that they will work on together.

“By the time we build the VC corridor, which we will support to the fullest, we must somehow address the transportation that affects the price of the goods. We hope to make it an airline,” said Galic, adding that he is extremely pleased about the cooperation with Dubrovnik-Neretva County so far.

Otherwise, in the morning, Dobroslavic and Galic distributed five tons of apples in Dubrovnik to associations and institutions in Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

This friendship gesture came as a response to the ten tons of mandarins donated by Dubrovnik-Neretva County to Vukovar-Srijem County as a Christmas present for the tenth consecutive year. 

To read more about travel in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

December 5, 2019 - With the start and finish line in Porec, a new cycling event titled Istria300 will launch in October next year, which will bring as many as 1,000 professional and recreational cyclists to Istria, announced the Valamar Diamant Hotel.

Glas Istre writes that the specialty, and therefore the uniqueness of this cycling event, is behind its motto ”Ride your limits". Specifically, participants will be able to choose their desired distance from the three offered during the ride. Istria300 will ride on trails of 155, 235, and 300 kilometers maximum.

In addition to the race, as part of the event, the Istria300 Expo will be held in Porec from October 8th to October 11th, offering visitors and participants a handful of innovations from the cycling industry. In addition to sports facilities, many interesting lectures by renowned cycling coaches and nutritionists from World Tour cycling teams will be organized.

This international cycling event is organized by Vladimir Miholjevic, former Croatian cyclist and Julius Rupitsch, organizer of the prestigious Großglockner Berglauf mountain race in Austria.

“We chose Istria because it offers ideal cycling conditions. The routes include beautiful places, excellent infrastructure, as well as facilities for cyclists. In addition, the destination itself is made up of its people, and the overall impression will provide participants an unforgettable cycling experience,” said race director Vladimir Miholjevic, adding that Istria is rich in natural beauty, and even these routes do not cover everything, which leaves room for new plans. He also points out that there are not many places in the world where 300 kilometers can be driven on closed roads.

The organizers have set themselves the highest standards in organizing cycling events, and their desire is for athletes and cycling to profit as much as possible.

The mayor of the host city, Loris Persuric, said that he believed that October next year would be a truly active month as another motive for arrivals was created, thus prolonging the tourist season.

The director of the Tourist Board of Porec, Nenad Velenik, agreed, adding that Porec certainly wants to become a base for different profiles of athletes and various sports, such as handball, football, and cycling.

Valamar Riviera and its Istrian destinations Porec and Rabac are actively involved in the development of cycling tourism.

“We believe that the main levers for the development of bike tourism are content creation and offers for cycling tourists. The terrain configuration in Istria, the excellent infrastructure and facilities of our hotels, adapted to active guests and professional athletes, are the basis for the development of a great cycling tourism offer. At Valamar Riviera, we strategically develop the destinations where we do business using our resources and their full potential to offer our guests exactly what they are looking for,” said Davor Brenko, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Valamar Riviera, who supports this major project.

Brenko adds that the fully equipped bike center currently in Rabac is planned to open in Porec next year. Furthermore, the official partner of this event is the world-famous Israel Cycling Academy cycling team from Tel Aviv, which has as many as 29 wins this year, and is specific in that it brings together members of different nationalities.

"You have a great track configuration, beautiful sea, and a great climate, which is why we are a proud partner of the event. But we are especially looking forward to our stay in Istria and the excellent treatment at Valamar Diamant Hotel as a base for our training camp in Israel, given the beautiful destination, excellent service and organizational references we have seen in four appearances at the Tour of Croatia and this year's CRO Race,” said Kjell Carlström, Israel Cycling Academy team director.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 4th of December, the use of the cloud in doing business in Croatia has increased significantly this year. According to the first results of CBS research entitled "The application of information and communication technologies in enterprises in 2019" the cloud is now used by 37 percent of Croatian companies.

In 2018, that figure stood at 31 percent, as it did in the previous year. The Croatian economy is, according to Eurostat, one of the top ten in the European Union in terms of cloud usage. Compared to last year, the largest increase in the use of cloud technologies in business in Croatia was recorded in office software in the cloud, where it jumped by five percentage points to 59 percent. The same leap was observed in database hosting. Now, as many as 52 percent of Croatian companies have their databases on the cloud.

Furthermore, accounting is rapidly moving to the cloud. This year, 48 percent of Croatian companies use cloud accounting services. The year before, its use in this field was down by four percentage points. The use of email in the cloud, which jumped three percentage points, to 85 percent is similarly increasing. Cloud storage has grown two percentage points, up to 67 percent, and is still rather weak, even though tourism, which would be a logical driver of demand, is increasing the use of CRM in the cloud.

In the past year, cloud usage has increased by only one percentage point and now cloud is used by 18 percent of Croatian companies when it comes to CRM. Another interesting thing is the continued growth of internet sales. Croatian companies have been claiming more than half of their sales through the Internet for several years. This year, that percentage has jumped two percentage points to 56 percent. Furthermore, in 2019, the CBS also analysed for the first time the willingness of the Croatian economy to resist cybercrime.

The most used prevention measure is software updates, which is regularly done up by 97 percent of large Croatian companies, 93 percent of medium-sized and 82 percent of small Croatian companies. Compared to last year, the number of Croatian companies with Internet access between 10 and 100 Mbps climbed from 63 to 65 percent, and the number of companies with access greater than 100 Mbps increased from 9 to 12 percent.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more.

December 5, 2019 - Jug AO, Jadran Split, and Mladost Zagreb played in the 6th round of the LEN Champions League on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. 

Jug AO opened the sixth round of the LEN Champions League in Group A against Hungarian club Szolnoki, winning 14:11 (4:4, 4:3, 3:1, 3:3).

After a precarious start on both sides where the defenses were far from their best, Jug and Szolnoki went goal for goal. Jug was the first to get their act together and towards the end of the second quarter, they were up by two goals. Szolnoki, however, managed to reduce Jug's lead to one. 

In the third quarter, Jug was steadily ahead, with a crucial moment in the last minute when Daniil Merkulov scored three goals (11-8), which turned out to be unattainable for Szolnoki.

Daniil Merkulov was the best for Jug with four goals. Alex Papanastasiou and Paulo Obradovic each scored three goals, Loren Fatovic scored two, while Xavi Garcia and Luka Lozina scored one. 

Jug’s final Champions League game this year is played on Monday, December 9, in Piraeus against the leaders of Group A, Olympiacos.

Jadran Split lost to Jadran Herceg Novi in the sixth round of Group A in the LEN Champions League 6:12. 

Jadran led 1:0 and 2:1, though the Montenegrin club came back for 3:5. At the beginning of the third quarter, Viskovic equalized for 5:5, though Jadran was unable to score more than one more goal for the remainder of the game. Herceg Novi, on the other hand, scored another seven for a final score of 6:12. 

Ante Viskovic was the best for Jadran with two goals, while Buric, Zovic and Delic scored one. 

Jadran will play their final Champions League game this year on Friday, December 13, against Barceloneta.

In the sixth round of the LEN Champions League Group B, Mladost lost to current European champion Ferencvaros in Budapest 5:14 (1:5, 3:2, 0:4, 1:3).

The Hungarian side was up by four goals already after the first quarter (5:1), and at the beginning of the second, it was 6:1. In the third quarter, Ferencvaros also led 11:4, and in the end, the host celebrated 14:5 and registered their fifth victory in Group B, while Mladost suffered their second defeat.

Ferencvaros was led by Marton Gyorgy Vasmos with three goals, while Josip Vrlic scored three goals for Mladost, and Milos Cuk and Cosmin Radu scored one. Mladost goalkeeper Ivan Marcelic recorded 13 saves. 

Mladost plays the final game of Champions League this year on December 9 in Zagreb against Marseille.

To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page. 

The Branimir Mingle Mall, a new and unique concept of an urban destination in the centre of Zagreb, is opening its doors. It is a completely redesigned Branimir Centre and as such a unique project on the Croatian market.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 4th of December, 2019, Zagreb's Branimir Centre was initially built back in 2003 and the Supernova Group acquired it in 2017. The complete reconstruction of the centre took almost two years, and included a complete remodeling of the interior, the exterior that includes the facade, the surroundings and the three levels of the parking garage. The new interior concept was created in collaboration with the Brigada interior design agency, and the new visual identity was done in collaboration with the Zagreb-based creative agency, Senor.

“Branimir Centre has lost its attractiveness over the years, but its excellent location and the general consumer's habits to visit the cinema have remained, and we've seen great potential here in re-positioning and adapting to market trends and needs.

With the entry of the Canopy by Hilton Hotel and the complete renovation of the mall, we've taken the first step towards its successful revitalisation. I believe that with the new concept, we've created an offer that people with all sorts of different tastes will choose to spend their free time and socialise here. From restaurant offerings, through playrooms and cinemas to sports content at the gym, Branimir Mingle Mall will surely meet all the requirements of the new generation and a modern lifestyle,'' said Markus Pinggera, Board Member of Supernova Group.

The total area of ​​the centre covers 25,000 square metres. In addition to the already-visited most visited cinema in Zagreb - Cinestar Branimir and the Wettpunkt casino, children's playrooms and cafes, the new concept opened last year with the exclusive 150-room Canopy by Hilton Hotel, ReUnion's signature restaurant and Canopy Central café & bar. In addition, the popular OrlandoFit Fitness Centre and the Umami Restaurant with their new designs have been opened.

The repositioning of the centre also includes new brands on the Croatian market. Visitors to the Branimir Mingle Mall will also be able to enjoy the new gastronomic concept of street food restaurants. The Slovenian burger chain Lars & Sven burgers and Manga Sushi bar will also be there for the first time ever here in Croatia.

On top of all that, visitors who love desserts will be delighted by the opening of Biberon cakes with a wide variety of desserts for every taste.

Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle page for much more.

The RUNE project has the best funding model in the European Union (EU).

As Bernard Ivezic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 4th of December, 2019, the Croatian-Slovenian optical infrastructure construction project, which is independent of the existing telecom operators, called RUNE, was declared the best in the whole of the European Union by the European Commission (EC) in the category of "Innovative financing, business and investment models".

As the main issue when it comes to building optics in the European Union is precisely finding the right model to fund such projects, it is safe to say that this is also the most important award the European Commission awards as part of its European Broadband Awards for the year 2019.

Saša Ukić, director of Rune Adria, told Poslovni Dnevnik that the award was accepted on behalf of the project by the companies Vahta from Sežana (Slovenia) and 3t.Cable from Opatija (Croatia).

"This award will help us contract our first customers, which are telecom operators for us," stated Ukić.

The RUNE project is being implemented by the Luxembourg-based Rune Crow, whose main investment partner is the first European broadband investment fund - the Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (CEBF).

In March, Rune signed contracts with a dozen cities and municipalities in Istria to build a FTTH, and the CEBF plans to invest as much as a massive 60 million euros in similar projects here in Croatia in the future.

Rune plans to deploy an optical network in Istria and the hinterland which aims to have to up to 110,000 end-users by setting up 22 optical access networks in consultation with cities and municipalities.

The total length of the new optical network is expected to be 2,200 kilometres. When Slovenia is included, the network will cover 3,676 villages with a more than impressive 372,315 connections in total.

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