Residents of areas near the border with Serbia are seeing more and more illegal immigrants in their villages.
Residents of the eastern part of Županjska Posavina, an area located in Croatia near the border with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, claim that illegal migrants have been roaming for days through the local forests and have also lately entered their villages more often. The locals say that they saw a larger group of migrants a few days ago in the centre of Vrbanja, where police officers in front of the local police station put them in police vehicles and drove them off in the direction of Otok, reports Glas Slavonije on November 25, 2016.
“Every now and then, we see the police bring in a few migrants. At the end of last week, we saw a larger group of maybe fifteen people, mainly covered with blankets and seated in front of a house near the police station. The police them took them away”, said one resident of Vrbanja.
Residents of Račinovci say that it all began back in late August and early September, when they noticed that a police helicopter started flying more often over their heads, monitoring the area near the border with Serbia. They say that, after dark, they lock themselves in their homes and are on constant alert. “It is not a pleasant feeling. We are here near the border, and when you know there are strangers, foreigners, maybe walking around your backyard, we are afraid of that”, say residents of Račinovci.
One resident of the village of Đurići says that police vehicles are constantly on forest roads and surrounding areas. “Recently they caught several migrants here in Đurići as well. They were sleeping in a backyard of a house. Some fifteen days ago, there was a shooting at the entrance to the village. We have information that the migrants entered Croatia from Serbia by crossing the Sava river at Brezovo Polje. Police was trying to arrest them in the area between Račinovci and Đurići. The dogs were barking all night. I was also awoken a few nights ago by barking. I went out without turning the light on, and then someone yelled from the darkness: ‘It is the police!’ I told them: ‘I am sorry, but around me are ten empty houses and I have to be careful’”, he says.
Spokesman of the Vukovar-Srijem Police Department Domagoj Džigumović said that he had no information about the appearance of illegal migrants in Vrbanja and surrounding villages. However, reports from locals such as this are becoming more common, and many are afraid that last year’s migrant wave could be repeated and again hit the area.
