Will Asylum Seekers Centre Be Built in Petrinja?

ZAGREB, February 22, 2019 – A panel discussion on the humane aspects of the integration of asylum seekers into Croatian society ended inconclusively in Petrinja on Friday as the authorities and residents failed to come any closer in their views on the plan to build an asylum seekers centre in the town, located about 60 kilometres southeast of Zagreb.

The only unanimous conclusion was that the residents did not have timely and relevant information about the project, which has been in the making for over a year.

The project to build a centre for asylum seekers was opposed by local war veterans, political parties and civil society organisations mostly for security reasons, and it has also been voted down by the Town Council.

“I have expressed my readiness to come here for as long as necessary so that we can issue the right messages and discuss facts. This probably should have been discussed earlier, but there are no time limits. The most important thing to me is that we all realise what this is about, and this is about deciding whether to help families who are in trouble and in need of international protection. And as for the building itself, that is a side issue,” Interior Minister Davor Božinović said.

Božinović said that Croatian policy on illegal migration was clear. “We will not allow illegal migration, but it is humane to help those who need help. If the residents insist on their decision, we will honour it, but I would not make such conclusions because I believe that dialogue can produce results.”

The minister said that 4 million euro had already been secured for the construction of infrastructure for the future centre and other facilities. He added that the total value of the project was about 200 million kuna (27 million euro) and that the money would be secured from EU funds.

More news about the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

the fields marked with * are required

Email: *
First name:
Last name:
Gender:	Male Female
Country:
Birthday:	[DD] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 [MM] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [YYYY] 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Please don't insert text in the box below!