Croatia is the first EU member state that migrants traveling the Balkan route to northwest Europe come across. The majority enter the nation through Serbia or Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since January 2023, Croatia has also been included in the Schengen Area. More than 20 00 migrants have entered Croatia since January, but majority of them haven’t applied for asylum there. They are non-visible according to the NGOs.
The number of foreign workers in Croatia is increasing, but migrants and refugees from Afghanistan and Syria are hardly ever seen in public in this Western Balkan nation, according to Deutsche Welle (DW). This is despite the fact that migrants are a common sight on the streets and roads of western Bosnia, southeastern Austria, and northern Italy. They just maintain a low profile, don’t stay long, and just go through Croatia on their way north, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there.
According to Izvor Rukavina, an activist with the Croatian nongovernmental organization Cities of Refuge, “the visibility of migrants and their contact with the local population depends on the degree to which they are criminalized and illegalized.”
“In Italy and Bosnia, it is easier for migrants to show themselves in public without putting their onward journey at risk,” he stated. “In Croatia and Slovenia, the risk of imprisonment and pushbacks is much higher, especially when they talk to the media.” It wasn’t always like this.
Prior to Croatia’s accession to the Schengen Area, the country’s authorities would issue “seven-days papers” to migrants, allowing them to enter the country for a maximum of seven days.
Asylum seekers from other EU nations may now be deported or readmitted in the future based on these documents and the personal information contained within. When the migrant flow into the city ceased in early 2024, this project was completed. “However, large numbers of migrants are still passing through Croatia, which is why we now speak of ‘invisible migration,'” Rukavina stated to DW.
Cruel Beatings and Pushbacks
Reports of violent pushbacks along the Bosnian-Croatian border have been around for years. Under EU law, such pushbacks are prohibited. Human rights organizations claim that for years, migrants and refugees from Bosnia who attempted to enter the EU member state have been mistreated, robbed, beaten, and forced to cross the border illegally. The Croatian government rejects criticism of its actions. Investigative journalists from a number of European nations documented so-called pushbacks at five locations along the Bosnian-Croatian border between May and September 2021, according to DW.
Eleven instances of migrants being forcibly removed from Croatia are documented in the video. Authorities reportedly deported over 140 individuals across the green border without ever investigating their eligibility for protection. In an EU nation, such pushbacks are illegal. In order to find migrants attempting to cross the border from Bosnia, Croatia’s border police force also makes use of contemporary tools like drones.