

Migrants at the Vucjak camp in Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 25 October 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR.

Human Rights Watch, HRW, on Friday said Croatia should not be allowed to join the passport-free Schengen area because of its “unlawful” and violent pushbacks of refugees and asylum seekers.

It said the recent conclusion of the European Commission, that Croatia is ready to join the Schengen area, “wilfully brushes over evidence of violent push-backs of migrants at its borders”, releasing a video documenting the abuses.

“Croatia’s unlawful and violent summary returns of asylum seekers and migrants should disqualify it from joining the Schengen Area,” said Lydia Gall, senior Eastern Europe and Balkans researcher at HRW.

The released video features interviews with people shortly after they were summarily returned to Bosnia by the Croatian police in August, as well with witnesses of pushbacks.

It also shows secretly recorded footage, published in December last year, of Croatian police officers escorting groups of migrants across the border to Bosnia without following due process.

Witnesses talked to @hrw about how they saw #Croatia police officers engaging in or talking about pushbacks of migrants: See @hrw video: https://t.co/egb6oK6u3T — Lydia Gall (@LydsG) November 8, 2019

Rights groups say Croatia frequently returns migrants and refugees that try to cross the border from neighbouring Bosnia. Many have reported use of violence, but the Croatian authorities deny the claims, insisting that such accusations are often made up.

HRW noted that Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic had acknowledged that the authorities engage in pushbacks in July this year, when she said that police’s actions towards migrants and refugees trying to cross the border had involved “a little bit of force”.

The number of people trying to cross from Bosnia into EU-member Croatia is growing. Between January and July this year, 14,690 new migrants and refugees were reported to have arrived in Bosnia, according to the International Organisation for Migration, IOM. That was 54 per cent more than for the same period last year. Authorities in the Una-Sana Canton in northwest Bosnia say some 6,000 to 7,000 are currently in the canton.

HRW says it has documented summary collective expulsions from Croatia to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2016.

“In some instances, Croatian border officials have used force … [and] violence has been directed against women and children. Unlike with lawful deportations, migrants are not returned at ports of entry, but rather in remote border areas, including, at times, forced to cross freezing streams,” it stated.

HRW said that summary return of asylum seekers without consideration of their protection needs is contrary to European Union asylum law, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the 1951 Refugee Convention.

It also quoted EU Schengen Borders Code Article 4, which says that member states should act in compliance with EU law and “obligations related to access to international protection, in particular the principle of non-refoulement and fundamental rights”.

The European Commission announced that Croatia had “taken the measures needed to ensure that the necessary conditions for the full application of the Schengen rules and standards are met”, as BIRN reported on October 22.

However, the Commission’s evaluation of Croatian technical preparedness is only the first step, since member states must also unanimously agree on it.

HRW urged the European Commission to press Croatia to demonstrate concrete progress by putting in place an independent and effective monitoring mechanism on the issue.

“The Commission should also initiate legal enforcement action against Croatia for violating EU laws,” HRW stated.