Interior Minister explains why there are so few refugees living in Croatia.
Croatia has done all it could to accommodate refugees from the relocation programme, but these people simply do not want to live in Croatia, said on Monday Croatian Interior Minister Vlaho Orepić. “We are not late with the implementation of our commitments, and we have prepared all the mechanisms, but we just cannot get people who would want to come to Croatia”, said Orepić in Brussels, reports N1 on March 27, 2017.
Minister Orepić participated in Brussels in a meeting of EU interior ministers, who discussed matters related to migration policy and several legislative proposals, among other things the reform of the European asylum system, the proposal on the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), and the systematic control of entry and exit from the European Union, including for EU citizens.
As part of the programme for refugee relocation, which has been adopted at the EU level, Croatia should receive about 1,500 people, but, according to the data from February, so far only about 20 refugees have arrived. The process of transfer is in progress for additional 30 people from Greece and 20 from Italy.
Asked whether there was a danger of reopening of the Balkan route, due to the threat of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to cancel the agreement with the EU on stopping the refugee flow, Orepić said there was no danger. “I do not think there is any danger. There is no data which would suggest that”, said Orepić.
Together with interior ministers of Bulgaria and Romania, deputy foreign minister of Poland, and the permanent representative of Cyprus, Orepić met on Sunday with the European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration Dimitris Avrampoulos. The topic of the meeting was the lack of visa reciprocity from the United States, given that the US continues to seek visas from citizens of these countries. “We have given our support to the common approach that the European Commission will communicate”, said Orepić.
In a statement, the European Commission says that it will continue with close cooperation with the United States, at the political and at technical level, in order to find a solution “to the benefit of European and American citizens and in favour of close strategic relationship”.
In other words, Croatian citizens will need to have visas for visiting the United States for a foreseeable future.
