EU Wants Members States, Including Croatia, to Respect Immigration Rules

The latest on the migrant crisis in Croatia. 

The existing European immigration rules and regulations known as the Dublin System must be implemented, concluded the European Council, a body composed of prime ministers and presidents of the 28 EU countries, which joined the European Commission in sending a strong message which is opposite to the attitude of the Croatian government which believes that the Dublin System is dead, which is why Croatian authorities are not sharing with the EU data about registered refugees and migrants. The European Council tasked the Commission to “promptly submit the proposal for revision of the Dublin System”, but also concluded that “in the meantime, the existing rules should be applied”, reports Tportal and Vecernji List on December 19, 2015.

Asked whether he still thought the Dublin System was dead, since he supported the conclusions of the European Council, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanović in Brussels said: “Well, it is not dead if it needs to be changed.”

The European Commission last week warned Croatia because it registered only 575 refugees and migrants, although more than half a million of them have passed through Croatia in the last three months. Among the conclusions of the EU summit, there is a call for all EU member states to “ensure a systematic and complete identification, registration and fingerprinting”, and to “take measures” in cases when migrants do not want to register themselves.

If the new Commission proposal on the establishment of the European border and coast guard is accepted, the European border guards could, hypothetically, come to the Croatian border and register migrants according to the European regulations. EU summit supported the establishment of the European boarder and coast guard, which should be confirmed by interior ministers by July next year.

Prior to the summit, Milanović said that he was “reserved” toward the proposal, but after the summit he said the idea was “interesting”. “Croatia has to be actively involved. I hope we will never need it, but the idea is worth considering”, Milanović said. He added that it was an interesting idea because “if we have Schengen with full freedom of movement, then it makes sense that in exceptional circumstances the new guard could come to external borders”.

Despite the positive conclusion of the summit, the proposal is still controversial for some countries, such as Poland and Hungary, since it takes away some of the sovereignty of the national authorities and may result in the guards taking control of the borders of countries against their wishes.

During his stay in Brussels, Milanović also commented on Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar’s statement that Slovenia had decided to construct a razor wire fence on the Slovenian-Croatian border in Istria because he had information that Croatia could use that area to send migrants directly through Slovenia to Italy. Milanović said that Cerar made up that justification. “In these four years, I have never had to make up something in order to defend myself in front of the Croatian public. His explanation is ridiculous. That is simply not true, but if he needs it to justify himself in front of the Slovenian public, then fine”, Milanović said.

From midnight to 9 am on Saturday, 1,024 refugees entered Croatia. There were just 27 people accommodated at the temporary reception centre in Slavonski Brod. Since the beginning of the migration crisis, 516,815 migrants and refugees have passed through Croatia.

 

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