ZAGREB, September 24, 2018 – A Syrian refugee claiming that the Croatian police forcibly separated him from his five-year-old daughter on Monday formally filed a missing person report and applied for asylum.
Border police with the help of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) for Southeast Europe and representatives of the UNHCR met with the 43-year-old Syrian national at the Maljevac border crossing on Monday. During the meeting he informed the police of the details surrounding his daughter’s alleged disappearance and officially reported her as missing, the Interior Ministry said.
Even though after he had met with the police accompanied by the JRS and UNHCR, he intended to return over the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a little later he reconsidered and told the police that he wished to apply for asylum which was permitted on humanitarian grounds, taking into consideration the circumstances at hand. Local police are taking all the necessary action regarding the report of the child’s alleged disappearance.
The Syrian refugee is expected to be escorted to a migrant centre in Zagreb.
