Croatia Protests, Claiming that Slovenia Built the Fence on Croatian Side of the Border

The latest from the migrant crisis in Croatia.

While constructing the border fence near the river Sutla, Slovenian police entered Croatian territory and Croatian police forces have been sent to the area, Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojić confirmed yesterday afternoon, reports Vecernji List on November 12, 2015. “We are just going to warn them that they have entered the Croatian territory and tell them to remove the fence. If they do not, we will send them a diplomatic protest, and then physically remove the fence”, Ostojić said.

Due to the incident on the border, the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has sent a strong protest to the Slovenian Embassy in Zagreb and has called on Slovenia to remove the fence. It points out that it is an area for which even the Slovenian side itself in its official documents claims to belong to Croatia.

State Secretary at the Slovenian Ministry of the Interior Bostjan Šefic said, however, that Croatia was notified about the setting up of physical barriers for migrants on parts of the border and that the fence is on the Slovenian side. “This is not about border demarcation, but about the regulation of migration flows”, Šefic added.

Croatian police came to border yesterday afternoon, together with the head of the Zagreb Police Department Goran Burušić who held a meeting with his Slovenian counterpart, warning him that they have crossed into the Croatian territory. Following the meeting, Croatian police withdrew from the border. Burušić conveyed the demands to the Slovenians and it is expected that Slovenia will remove the fence from Croatian territory during the day.

Meanwhile, in Međimurje, near the Bukovje-Gibine border crossing, Slovenia put up 1,350 meters of obstacles. They were careful not to enter the Croatian territory, so the wire has been set up twenty metres inside the border. Mayors of Sveti Martin na Muri and Štrigova Franjo Makovec and Stanislav Rebernik said it was not nice to see a wire on the border, but the traffic at border crossings is currently proceeding without problems.

Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojić said there are no plans to open new refugee camps in Croatia because Croatia has fulfilled all of its obligations and its capacity is equal to the capacities of all other countries. Commenting on the Slovenian border fence, Ostojić said that this was an unnecessary waste of money that could be better spent on the construction of temporary shelters such as the one in Slavonski Brod. “Slovenia is talking about the new great wave of refugees, but obviously they do not have the information that half of that wave has already gone through their country by now. The strike in Greece has long been finished and people have moved on, and are already on the Austrian border”, Ostojić said. He added that the fence at certain places cannot prevent the arrival of migrants on other points of the green border.

From midnight to 9 pm on Wednesday, 7,355 migrants entered Croatia. There are 2,229 migrants and refugees located at reception centre in Slavonski Brod. Since the beginning of the migration crisis, 362,822 migrants and refugees have entered Croatia.

 

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