Under the Dublin III regulation, 1,697 asylum seekers from other nations in the customs-free Schengen area returned to Croatia last year. According to the regulation, processing an asylum seeker’s application is the responsibility of the Schengen state in which the individual was initially registered.
According to official insights referenced by Balkan Insight, Croatia received 26,776 asylum requests last year, its second year as a Schengen zone member. Syrians made up the largest contingent (7,560), followed by Turks (5,759), Russians (4,057), and Afghans (2,293). Just 80 requests were granted, 71 of which were granted asylum and nine of which were given “subsidiary protection,” a lesser level of international protection.
Compared to 2022, when only 22 requests were approved, and 2023, when 52 were granted international protection, the number of approved requests is still minuscule.
Those who have their applications denied are told to leave Croatia. Many people have their sights set on other Western European nations where they think their employment prospects are better, so they don’t stay to find out.
Following the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, several nations, including Croatia, announced in December of last year that they would no longer be processing asylum applications from Syrian nationals.
Within six months of that nation taking over the processing of their asylum requests, migrants are typically returned to their country of origin; this period may be extended if the individual is incarcerated or may reach 18 months if they are fugitives.
Mistreatment and Abuse
Croatia’s record on how it handles migrants and refugees is incredibly inconsistent.
In Croatia, where people still remembered their own history of war and displacement during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, they were initially greeted with empathy when the so-called “migrant crisis” broke out in late 2015.
However, as public opinion changed, border police used more forceful methods to deport potential asylum seekers.
In December 2021, the Council of Europe’s torture committee strongly denounced Croatia for reports of “severe ill-treatment” of migrants entering the nation and called on the government to act quickly to put an end to the practice. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, or CPT, reported that during a visit in August 2020, its delegation ran into issues with obstruction and cooperation. The “transportation in cramped and unsafe conditions, ignoring their asylum requests and denying them access to the fundamental safeguards to which they are legally entitled” were among the other violations that were highlighted in the report.
The report then went on to say, “(These) are practices that have no place in a State that respects its human rights commitments and abides by the rule of law.”
Following Croatia’s accession into the Schengen area, research was done in 2023 by the organization Borders:none on the respect of the rights of refugees and those seeking international protection with regard to access to such protection. With funding from Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway through EEA grants through the Active Citizenship Fund, the study was carried out as a component of the “Better system, better respect for human rights” project. Recommendations were formulated and forwarded to the appropriate institutions in light of the research findings.
They suggested the following changes to the system: make sure that applicants for international protection provide accurate and comprehensive information when transferring their certificate of registration in front of interpreters or cultural mediators. They added that the same should be used when providing a decision regarding a return or expulsion; that foreigners in the return process should be informed of their rights, particularly the right to free legal aid and who to contact to exercise that right; that minors should be protected when seeking international protection and/or when taking steps to ensure the return of minors; and that police officers’ actions should be closely monitored to prevent irregular treatment of migrants and to protect their fundamental rights and dignity, particularly since unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable groups are among them.
Croatia seems to have reined in its police, but there is still a disconnect between the legal system and the actual situation on the ground, as evidenced by media reports and criticism from the European Parliament and an international rights watchdog.
Additionally, Croatia took part in the EU’s voluntary relocation program, which transfers asylum seekers between EU member states. In 2023, 29 asylum seekers were sent from Italy to Croatia under this program. 16 of them were granted asylum by Croatia.
Granted Asylum Statuses Down All Over Europe
With a population of 3.8 million, Croatia is comparable to other nations of a comparable size.
Slovenia, a two-million-person nation, gave asylum to five people in 2022 and none in 2023, according to Eurostat data. Slovakia, a country of 5.4 million people, granted five people international protection in 2022 and five more in 2023. Despite having a population of 5.2 million, Norway only granted 25 asylum requests in 2024, compared to 55 in 2022 and 50 in 2023. In contrast, Hungary has denied every asylum request for years.
In contrast, Germany granted 6,500 asylum requests in 2023, bringing the total number of applications granted since 2015 to 108,000. In 2023, France authorized an additional 9,460.
