Police officers from tourist destinations have been sent to border areas.
Police officers from inland counties, who spent summer months helping police departments in tourist areas, where they were supposed to stay until September, have suddenly been returned to their bases. While officials from the Vukovar-Srijem Police Department claim that the reason for their return is to save money, since the end of the main tourist season is approaching, some policemen explain such decision with a possibility that a new refugee wave could soon start moving towards Europe, reports Večernji List on August 27, 2016.
There is information about two million refugees in Turkey who are ready to move towards Western European countries. Recently, Croatian police organized a training exercise at the Batina Bridge on the border between Croatia and Serbia, where an iron fence was temporarily set up in the case of the arrival of migrants.
“In the last month and a half, there has been a rise in the number of attempted illegal border crossings, but we still cannot talk about the reopening of the Western Balkan migrant route as far as Croatia is concerned. The border police are preparing risk assessments and have a sufficient number of police officers and equipment at the most vulnerable parts of the state border. The Interior Ministry is ready to protect the state border”, said the Ministry in a statement.
At the same time, the media in Serbia regularly publish information about the arrival of new migrants who often cross state borders illegally. In border areas in Serbia, it is possible to see migrants walking through the towns. Some of them have tried to illegally cross the Croatian state border as well, but were detained at train stations in Vinkovci and Slavonski Brod. Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has announced the construction of another fence on the border with Serbia.
Mayor of the Municipality of Tovarnik Ruža Veselčić Šijaković said that she had no information about a possible new migrant wave. “The police, as usual, do not say much. We do not have any information, but we see more police officers in the area.”
