Migration pressure along Croatia’s border is not easing, with police preventing up to 90 people from entering illegally every day. This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Davor Božinović after a meeting of the Croatian government.
“The Croatian police protect the Croatian border and the European Union’s external border 24 hours a day. The migration flow has not subsided, and our officers prevent illegal entries every day while strictly complying with the law,” Božinović said, as quoted by the Croatian News Agency and Croatian Radio and Television.
The minister said that the Croatian authorities would continue to combat people smuggling and guard the border, which is also an external border of the EU.
Božinović also reported violence between groups of migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He said that the Croatian police had received a warning from their Bosnian counterparts about the possible crossing of armed criminal groups into Croatian territory.
So far, no cases of such groups crossing the border between the two countries have been recorded. The Bosnian police later discovered automatic weapons and pistols in temporary shelters used by the groups, the Croatian minister said.
Croatian services are monitoring the security situation along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Božinović stressed that certain patterns of violence between criminal groups and migrants exist, but they cannot automatically be linked to a specific case.
“I am not claiming that this happened in this case, because so far we have no established facts. We do know, however, that such patterns of violence exist, and that is why we are monitoring the security situation along the border very closely,” Božinović said.The minister also said that the Croatian police had no data confirming media reports of migrants being beaten. According to him, the information was obtained from the media, after which the police launched an investigation but found no confirmation.
The Croatian authorities have also not received an official notification from the competent institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the police, with whom they maintain constant contact. Božinović said that in the absence of established facts, no connection could be made between these claims and the actions of armed criminal groups.