8,000 Bangladeshi Nationals Issued Croatian Permits Didn’t Even Arrive

Lauren Simmonds

bangladeshi nationals croatian permits
Kristina Stedul Fabac/PIXSELL

January the 30th, 2025 – Of the 12,400 Bangladeshi nationals who were issued Croatian permits (visas and stay and work permits), 8,000 didn’t even arrive in the country. Their luggage eventually did, however.

Croatia is continuing to grapple with demographic decline and attempting to top of the waning labour market with foreign workers. Having lost a massively concerning 112,000 people under 34 in just 16 years, things are becoming frantic. Croatia is known for its paradoxes. It was always a country in which everything was made impossible and yet everything was possible all at the same time. Now it has transformed into a country where you can’t get a job but there are also employers willing to “fight” to hire you. Strange times indeed.

With the summer season needing plenty of preparation each year, the hunt is now on for thousands upon thousands of seasonal workers. Traditionally, they’d come from neighbouring non-EU nations such as Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. Now, even that market is being flooded with third country nationals from distant lands such as India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

Sanjin Strukic/PIXSELL

It’s precisely Bangladesh that is causing an issue. It seems that despite Bangladeshi nationals (or their would-be employers) applying for and being granted Croatian permits, plenty aren’t even showing up.

As N1 reports, Of the 4,400 Bangladeshi nationals who did arrive in Croatia last year, only 50 percent are currently listed as working, according to Večernji list.

Foreign workers who correctly and legally obtain their visas and stay and work permits seem to be abusing the system by either not coming to Croatia at all, or heading off to another Schengen country with a Croatian permit.

In any case, plenty are simply vanishing from Croatia after a little while. Odder still, their luggage does eventually show up in Croatia, but these “ghost suitcases” are never claimed by their owners, but not them. Naturally, that throws increasingly desperate Croatian employers, most of which are in construction and tourism, scratching their heads and scrambling for more staff. It also often leaves a decently sized dent in their financial situation, as importing Bangladeshi nationals and paying for their Croatian permits doesn’t come cheap.

Patrik Macek/PIXSELL

Such almost incredulous violations of the provisions of Croatia’s Law on Foreigners are being recorded among a widening group of third country nationals. The abuse of residence permits, visas and the entire system has also been recorded among citizens of India, Nepal, the Philippines and Egypt. That said, it is Bangladeshi nationals currently in the lead when it comes to the abuse of Croatian permits. As things stand, around 7,000-8,000 Bangladeshi citizens are currently employed in Croatia.

 

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