Croatian Minister of Interior Ostojić Comments on the Official EU Letter of Notice

Croatia had a valid reason not to implement the Dublin Regulation, said Ostojić

After the EU officially cautioned Croatia earlier today for not entering migrant registration data into the joint EURODAC information system in accordance with the Dublin Regulation, Croatian Minister of Interior Ranko Ostojić addressed the issue on December 10, 2015 during a press conference at the refugee transit centre in Slavonski Brod

Ostojić stated: “”Dublin Regulation was created for some other time and pletely different circumstances. The fact that almost half a million refugees and migrants passed through Croatia, and just as many of them passed through Hungary, does not enable us to implement the Dublin Regulation in its current form”.

Just to remind you, Dublin Regulation states that all migrants and refugees should be registered in the first EU country they enter, and they will be sent back to that country if the country in which they seek asylum denies their request. The tricky part here is, because of the recent ruling of the European Human Rights Court according to which rights of migrants were violated in Greece, that country is now exempt from the Dublin Regulation and migrants will not be returning there even though Greece was the first EU point of entry for most of them.

Ostojić confirmed that Croatia did indeed enter all information into the EURODAC system during the first 48 hours of the crisis, but when the number of arrivals started to increase dramatically they kept registering everyone but they no longer shared the information with EURODAC.

“It is unreasonable to expect full compliance with the Dublin Regulation, even Germany is asking for a different approach. This Regulation can only be implemented if the entire EU agrees that asylum request can be filed in any member state, but that hasn’t happened yet.” Ostojić said.

As far as the EU Letter of Formal Notice goes, Ostojić stated that Croatia had a very valid reason for not implementing the Dublin Regulation “Croatia cannot be considered as the first EU point of entry and as such, migrants cannot be sent back here in case their asylum request is denied by the country in which they filed their request. We are doing what we are doing because we respect international conventions and treat migrants with all the dignity they deserve” Ostojić concluded. 

 

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