As Croatia votes, the migrant crisis continues.
Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojić commented yesterday at the temporary refugee reception centre in Slavonski Brod on the cooperation with neighbouring countries in terms of controlling the flow of refugees. Although he said the cooperation with Serbia was very good, with Slovenia the situation is somewhat different, reports Vecernji List on November 9, 2015.
Croatia has answered the call of the Slovenian Interior Minister to all countries of the European Union, in which she requested the assistance in police officers. Ostojić said that he is confident that the Croatian officers have proven with their professionalism and humanity that they can do the job well. “Slovenians have rejected 50 experienced police officers which we have offered to them to better control the migrant wave, and they have still not given answer to our offer of 300 tents which Croatia received from donations from Qatar. I do not want to speculate about the reasons”, Ostojić said.
He added that he expects that in the next few days the inflow of migrants will increase, considering that after the strike of port workers in Greece ended, 30,000 refugees started moving towards Western and Northern Europe. Whether there will be chaos depends primarily on the capacity of recipient countries, from Slovenia and Austria to Germany. According to Ostojić, the camp in Slavonski Brod is completely ready. Commenting on the costs associated with the refugee crisis, he stressed that Croatia has been approved aid in the amount of 16.4 million euros, while Croatia has so far spent about 100 million kuna.
From midnight to 21 pm on Sunday, 5,486 migrants and refugees entered Croatia. In the reception centre in Slavonski Brod, there are currently 2,089 migrants. Since the beginning of the refugee crisis, 340,598 migrants and refugees have entered Croatia. So far, 23,500 refugees have passed through the camp in Slavonski Brod without incident.
Croatian nationals who work in the camp in Slavonski Brod participated in yesterday’s parliamentary elections by voting at a polling station in the Brod-Posavina County building. Interior Minister Ostojić was one of those who voted at that special polling station.
