ZAGREB, March 1, 2019 – The Karlovac police on Friday filed criminal charges against a 44-year old Syrian migrant who last September falsely reported his daughter as missing, after which he applied for asylum in Croatia and then ran away from the Migrant Centre, the local police reported.
The police reported that they had determined that the 44-year old Syrian, who identified himself as Wadie Ghazi Sineid, had falsely reported that the “Croatian police had separated him from his 5-year old daughter on 11 September 2018 in Slunj.” The police suspect that he did this “with the aim of crossing the state border of Croatia and stepping onto the territory of the European Union, namely a member state of the Schengen Area in order to regulate his residency there.”
“The suspect falsely reported the child as missing even though he was aware that the child was not with him, believing that the police would react urgently in search of the child,” the police said in press release.
The suspect reported the child’s disappearance on September 24 saying that this occurred at the Maljevac border crossing, and on that occasion, he said that he would apply for international protection in Croatia. Subsequently the police undertook a series of measures to search for the minor.
The suspect is currently out of reach of Croatian authorities because prior to his application for international protection being resolved he left the asylum centre in Zagreb.
Last autumn, Interior Minister Davor Božinović confirmed to the media that prior to the Syrian reporting the missing child, he had applied for asylum in Sarajevo and that at that time, he was not accompanied by his daughter.
Cases of false alarm in Croatia carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.
More news on the migrant crisis can be found in the Politics section.
