August the 14th, 2026 – Croatian MP Josip Dabro has pushed harsh measures against illegal migrants, stating that “you can’t talk with evil, you need to shoot at evil”.
Index reports that the former DP minister and MP Josip Dabro reacted clearly and sharply to the case of a Pakistani man who imprisoned and raped a Nepalese citizen in a house near Zagreb, stating that Croatia must act significantly more harshly toward illegal migrants who commit criminal offences.
“there’s no talking with evil, you have to shoot at evil”
In a statement titled “The principle of state prevention toward illegal migrants: There is no talking with evil, you have to shoot at evil!”, he called for stricter border protection, including the use of force, and the possibility of temporarily suspending the right to seek asylum.
Dabro referred to the case of Mohamad Sh., whom he claims has been moving for years throughout Croatia and other European countries, repeatedly committing extremely serious crimes, and after police and court proceedings again seeks asylum in order to avoid deportation. He believes this case demonstrates the powerlessness of European states in dealing with people who abuse the asylum system. “What we are witnessing in this case is a public demonstration of the powerlessness and paralysis of state orders, and at the same time an invitation to everyone in the world to come and calmly, with impunity, fulfil their most perverse urges and desires,” Dabro said.
sharp criticism of lax approach by other countries
Dabro claims that the way European countries handle such cases sends the wrong message to potential perpetrators.
“Come, do whatever you want, no one can do anything to you, and on top of that you will have free accommodation, food, pocket money for condoms, possibly knives or even firearms,” he wrote, describing the message which, in his opinion, the existing system sends.
He also criticised political debates about human rights, the European legal order and the possible deployment of the army on the borders. As a positive example he highlighted the policy of US President Donald Trump, whom he claims shows how a responsible state should behave. Dabro also linked the case to earlier attacks on police officers, beatings, murders and mass brawls in Zagreb and other European cities. He claims that because of this “increasingly serious insecurity is becoming a legal European acquis”.
he advocates the use of force at the border
Dabro then set out a series of measures he considers necessary. He stated that “there is no mercy or concessions toward evil” and that nothing that is illegal must subsequently become legal. The security of the population, he believes, must primarily be defended at the state borders.
“The security of one’s own people is primarily defended at the borders, by all means and by shooting if and when necessary,” Dabro wrote. He also claims that international norms must not limit the state if it assesses that national security is threatened. In his view, in the event of a conflict between international rules and national security, such norms should be suspended. “No international norm can legally suspend the sovereign and exclusive right of the state to protect its national security by all available means,” he stated.
suspending the right to asylum
Dabro believes the state must act immediately and without, as he puts it, “false legal labyrinths”, and publicly promote such a policy in order to deter people who intend to cross the border illegally and commit criminal offences. He also called on those who oppose this approach to personally take care of illegal migrants.
“All those who have a moral objection to such state policies, instead of rhetorical one-upmanship – take in the illegal migrants, take them home, feed and care for them, share your security, prosperity and home with them, stop sharing other people’s,” he wrote. As examples of the messages the state should, in his opinion, send, he cited a case in which security forces would kill an illegal migrant during a violent attempt to cross the border, the expulsion of a perpetrator of sexual violence after a police intervention, and the temporary suspension of the right of illegal migrants to submit asylum applications.
Dabro believes such messages can have a stronger deterrent effect than increasing the number of security force members at the border, but only if the state shows it is prepared to implement them. “Whoever plans to enter Croatia illegally and cause disorder in the country must know that persecution or death awaits him, not protection and super-rights,” he said. “Let us be a nation, not a humanitarian refuge for the world’s evil,” Dabro concluded.
