ZAGREB, June 5, 2019 – State-Secretary in the Central State Office for Croats Abroad, Zvonko Milas, on Wednesday informed that the office was actively helping the Croat community in Venezuela, which is in a difficult social, economic and security situation.
There are just under 5,000 Croats in that community and together with humanitarian organisations, the UN and anyone who can, the Office for Croats Abroad is helping in preserving that community, Milas said, submitting a report to parliament on the office’s activities in 2017.
The state should have certain “magnets” that will attract some people who are having a hard time living there, MP Ante Babić (HDZ) said.
Milas informed that in 2017 the office had granted 1.3 million kuna for projects submitted by the Croat communities in South America and South Africa.
He boasted that funds to assist Croat minorities in 12 European countries had increased by 50% compared to 2016 and that Croatia has agreements on the protection of ethnic minority rights with four countries: Hungary, Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro.
Milas underscored however that since 1991, Croats in Slovenia do not have any status. “That means that they aren’t treated as a national minority or linguistic minority,” Milas said adding that a commission was established in 2017 aimed at resolving the status of the Croat community in that country.
He said the office focused mainly on assisting the Croat people in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that funds had increased by 20% in 2017 compared to 2016, financing 88 projects.
The office granted 500 scholarships in the 2016/2017 academic year for Croat students and secured additional funding for the University in Mostar and the national theatre in that city. An agreement with the University of Zagreb signed in 2017 provided for a special enrolment quota for Croat students from abroad and launched an online Croatian language course.
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