Praise for Croatia’s handling of the migrant crisis from neighbouring countries.
Macedonia is grateful to Croatia for its assistance in guarding its borders and registration of refugees, said on Saturday in Munich the Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki. “We are grateful for the fact that, in such a difficult situation, with a great influx of migrants and refugees who are crossing our border, we have EU members which are helping us both politically and on the ground. Croatian police is helping us in this effort and cooperation is excellent”, said Poposki in a statement to reporters after his meeting with Croatian Foreign Minister Miro Kovač. The ministers are in Munich where they participate at a security conference, reports Index.hr on February 14, 2016.
A group of Croatian border police officers arrived to Macedonia on Tuesday to assist in the profiling of refugees and border control. Minister Kovač said that the cooperation between Croatia and Macedonia, but also of all the other countries on the refugee route was very effective, especially on the police level. “We have our police officers helping control the border and profiling migrants. We need to show that we care about the refugee wave and that we are ready to contribute to a possible European solution for the migrant problem”, he said.
According to Kovač, the European solution will have to be found soon because otherwise it will lead to problems in countries receiving refugees, particularly Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Austria. Talking about the preparations for possible arrival of migrants to Croatia through Montenegro, Kovač said that it was understandable that states are making certain arrangements, although there are still no indications that the route might change.
Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said on Saturday that cooperation with Croatia concerning the migrant crisis has significantly improved since the new Croatian government took power. He added that his recent meeting with new Croatian Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković in Ljubljana was an important contribution to a better cooperation.
“We have both expressed our desire to continue to resolve outstanding issues”, said Cerar, adding that the fact that the Croatian prime minister had chosen Slovenia for his first foreign visit was seen as a positive sign. Speaking about the migrant crisis and the meeting of the EU Council next week, Cerar said he still believed in the possibility of a joint solution to control the external borders of the EU, in order to prevent illegal migration to Europe.
He added that Slovenia will strengthen the control of its border with Croatia in the coming weeks, as soon as Austria does the same on its border with Slovenia. Cerar once again confirmed that the Croatian idea of introducing trains which would take migrants directly to the Slovenian-Austrian border was unacceptable.
