Refugee Crisis: European Union Sues Own Member States Greece, Croatia, Italy, Hungary and Malta

 

Photo: Screenshot Time Magazine time.com 12 December 2015

Photo: Screenshot Time Magazine
time.com 12 December 2015

Misguided or not, the EU Commission stepped up pressure on Hungary, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Malta to register all migrants and refugees entering the EU and to follow European rules in dealing with asylum claims.
The European Commission announced on Thursday 10 December 2015 that it has launched legal proceedings in line with processing infringementsfor failing to fully transpose and implement the Common European Asylum System,” against Greece, Croatia, Italy, Malta and Hungary for inadequately documenting the arrival of refugees. Specifically, the Commission burdens Greece, Croatia and Italy for failing to implement the Eurodac Regulation, which requires fingerprinting refugees within 72 hours of their arrival. Now the Commission has issued letters of formal notice to the countries involved—the first step of its infringement procedure. In simple words, these three countries had fingerprinted significantly less refugees than the number that has crossed their borders in their quest to reach Germany, Sweden … Western Europe. The point is that the Dublin Regulation on refugees includes the expectation that refugees sent back from a country where asylum has been denied are sent back to the EU country where they were first fingerprinted/registered.
In other words, Greece, Croatia and Italy have now been threatened with expensive court cases for failing to follow migrant rules, which, by the way, seem most inappropriate and inadequate in today’s refugee crisis. In EU Commission’s claimed breach of a process intended to prevent migrants travelling on through central Europe and into Germany, those countries failed to fingerprint asylum seekers within three days (72 hours) of arrival as required by the Eurodac Regulation. The number of asylum applications made to European Union (EU) countries since January has reportedly reached more than 1 million. Certainly there have been over 450,000 that have passed through Croatia since mid-September 2015 and that is only one route of several which refugees and illegal migrants take.

Refugees crossing into European countries anywhere they can away from official borders creating chaos and disorder Photo: AFP/ Attila Kisenbeck

Refugees crossing into European
countries anywhere they can
away from official borders
creating chaos and disorder
Photo: AFP/ Attila Kisenbeck

The Dublin Regulation (Regulation No. 604/2013; sometimes the Dublin III Regulation; previously the Dublin II Regulation and Dublin Convention) is a European Union (EU) law that determines the EU Member State responsible to examine an application for asylum seekers seeking international protection under the Geneva Convention and the EU Qualification Directive, within the European Union. It is the cornerstone of the Dublin System, which consists of the Dublin Regulation and the EURODAC Regulation, which establishes a Europe-wide fingerprinting database for unauthorised entrants to the EU. The Dublin Regulation aims to ‘determine rapidly the Member State responsible [for an asylum claim]’and provides for the transfer of an asylum seeker to that Member State. Usually, the responsible Member State will be the state through which the asylum seeker first entered the EU.”
On perhaps a more serious note than the case of infringements against Greece, Croatia and Italy the Commission’s actions against Hungary see Hungary facing legal action by the EU over allegations it failed to respect the rights of failed asylum seekers having allegedly ignored rules protecting failed asylum seekers from deportation while appeals are in progress. The European Commission also said that Hungary’s fast-track deportation regime ignores migrants’ rights to an interpreter, and left what should have been judicial decisions in the hands of unqualified secretaries.

Hungary thus faces a process against it for its asylum policies and newly passed legislation, which the Commission described as “incompatible with EU law.” The Commission views Hungary’s asylum appeals procedures as too strict and its translation services as inadequate or inefficient!

 

Refugees and illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranea to Greece Photo: Petros Giennakuris

Refugees and illegal migrants
crossing the Mediterranean to Greece
Photo: Petros Giennakouris

Greece and Malta face action for failure to meet standards for migrant reception centres. They are burdened with apparently failing to communicate the national measures taken to fully transpose the Asylum Procedures Directive, which sets out common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection, and the Reception Conditions Directive, which deals with access to reception conditions for asylum seekers while they wait for examination of their applications.
The proceedings, which can be proposed by the European Commission or another EU-member country, will be passed to the Court of Justice of the European Union which could force the member countries burdened with infringements of Eurodac Regulation or Asylum Procedures Directives with hefty fines the countries in question can ill afford.

 

 

But, at the end of the day, the infringements are not as significant as is the issue of Germany under Angela Merkel’s voicing invitations that kept encouraging and inviting refugees and illegal migrants to come to Germany. This invitation had caused chaos and rush of people moving through countries to reach Germany, in many instances avoiding registration purposefully in EU countries they first set foot upon. No one, without using guns, could have stopped the stampede of refugees on their way to Germany or Western Europe. The refugees and the illegal migrants seemed to have known the EU asylum seeker laws quite well for an overwhelming majority did not and do not apply for asylum and international protection when in Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy – they push to reach Germany and Western Europe first. They seem to be well aware of the provision under the Dublin Regulation that, in case of being in several countries over the months preceding and during asylum application, the country of their most recent temporary abode must take on the responsibility of their asylum seeking case. Hence the rush, the chaos, the determination to reach Germany or Sweden or other relatively wealthy Western European countries as quickly as possible, avoiding being fingerprinted or properly registered en route. Furthermore, false claims of origins – false registrations – have been reported as especially concerning since EU announced in October 2015 it was not taking in people from other countries than Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and, it is well known that masses from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Albania, African countries are numerous among the river of people heading across Europe in search of a better life.

Illegal migrants hiding among genuine refugees seeking international protection is a large problem that cannot be solved through lawsuits or forcing implementation of inadequate rules

Illegal migrants hiding among
genuine refugees seeking
international protection is a large problem
that cannot be solved through lawsuits
or forcing implementation of inadequate rules

Regretfully, the EU Commission does not seem to have adequately addressed the fact that it takes money and manpower to fingerprint or register the masses that were crossing the borders of Croatia, Greece, and Italy etc. EU Commission should have acted quickly and provided the needed support for the registration of would-be asylum seekers or illegal migrants at first EU country border crossed in pursuit of reaching Germany to where they were invited instead of evidently expecting the seriously economically impoverished to bear the financial burden of prompt fingerprinting. One would think that the Dublin Regulation was not construed having in mind that fingerprinting or registration of refugees should jeopardise the well being of people living in countries where refugees first arrive.

Broken down the numbers of migrants seeking asylum between June and September give an interesting picture of the crisis,” writes Sarkis Zeronian of Breitbart London.  “Predictably about a third were Syrians, with a further 14 per cent from Afghanistan and 10 per cent from Iraq. However, more surprising is that fact that some 26,000 Albanians, 21,000 Pakistanis and 11,175 Nigerians also applied for asylum.

Albania aspires to membership of the EU, Pakistan is a Commonwealth country, and Nigeria, as well as also being in the Commonwealth, is one of Africa’s fastest growing states. These countries do not represent typical war-torn nations which generate refugees and asylum seekers.

Refugees and illegal migrants enter Europe together Photo: AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Refugees and illegal migrants
enter Europe together
Photo: AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

 

In this saga of EU Commission taking legal action against member countries for not fingerprinting all of the hundreds of thousands of refugees and illegal migrants crossing their borders does indeed remind one of an occurrence resembling trans-national militarism; where some blanket EU unity is being forced on issues that do not enjoy or cannot enjoy a problem-free contribution to that unity by all member states. The problem for the EU “big powers”, such as France and Germany, is that they do not seem to take lightly the fact that the EU member countries grossly economically and otherwise affected (Hungary, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Malta…) by the transit of hundreds of thousands of refugees on their way to Germany and Western Europe have taken steps for their own protection from seemingly irreparable damage. So, they assisted the desperate refugees to cross over their territories in order to reach Germany, while also building fences to discourage refugees from crossing over or placing more police and army guards at the borders. This lawsuit or infringement imposing process the EU Commission has started has all the hallmarks of trans-national militarism partly being achieved through bullying the Southern and Eastern European countries into submitting to refugee management rules that appear inadequate and to open a door for returning to those countries (at least as a transient measure) all those hundreds of thousands of people who do not achieve asylum/international protection in Germany, France or Western Europe. Interesting times are ahead and if the latter starts happening the countries affected should refuse turning their territories into one big refugee concentration camp. EU surely cannot penalise its member countries in this way just because their geographic position is such that refugees reach their shores/borders first on the way to Western Europe. The Equal distribution of refugee numbers among EU member countries of a couple of months ago, initiated by France and Germany, had not worked and now they’re leading the push to bully Southern and Eastern EU countries (Malta, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Hungary) for not fingerprinting every single one of the million or so entering Europe through them. Not even bothering to ask, it seems, whether these countries had the resources as well as the opportunity to fully attend to such a demanding, mammoth task; not even thanking the countries it intends to sue for saving so many refugee lives in the chaos of large numbers of arrivals that are in essence unmanageable; how disappointing a move by the EU. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Migrant Crisis In Croatia Widens Political Rift – Plans For Coup d’état Suspected

Refugees enter Croatia at the Serbia-Croatia border Croatian President Wants to Close these illegal border crossings and keep official ones open The Government opposes this Photo: EPA/Antonio Bat

Refugees enter Croatia
at the Serbia-Croatia border
Croatian President Wants to
Close these illegal border crossings
and keep official ones open
The Government opposes this
Photo: EPA/Antonio Bat

More than 190,000 refugees and migrants have crossed into Croatia over the past month and assisted to cross over Hungary to richer European countries (383,000 have crossed Hungary so far this year). At midnight Friday 16 October Hungary sealed its border with Croatia and, hence, refugees making their way to Hungary from Croatia can no longer contemplate that route. Hungary’s government declared its southern frontier with Croatia off limits to migrants, blocking entry with a metal fence and razor wire, as well as soldiers and police, just as it did a month ago on its border with Serbia.

Hungarian soldiers seal off border with Croatia 16 October 2015 Photo: Reuters/Antonio Bronic

Hungarian soldiers seal off
border with Croatia
16 October 2015
Photo: Reuters/Antonio Bronic

The UN refugee agency said people were being denied their right to protection under international conventions by Hungary’s actions. Hungary declared it is duty-bound to secure the borders of the European Union from mainly Muslim migrants threatening, it said, the prosperity, security and “Christian values” of Europe.
As Hungary sealed its borders with Croatia panic rose within Croatia that it would not be able to cope with or sustain such a large and incessant influx of migrants without a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding. The Croatian minister for internal affairs Ranko Ostojic was swift in his lame attempt to quell fears and panic within Croatia and announced that his government would immediately put in place their Plan C. However, outrage poured as he failed to reveal what the Plan C entails, although it became clear quite quickly that the refugees and migrants routed to Western Europe via Hungary would now be routed through Slovenia. Minister Ostojic said the government would continue ferrying migrants across the country by bus and train as long as Slovenia, Austria and Germany kept their borders open. Without Slovenia or Hungary keeping their borders open the refugees have no way of reaching Austria or Germany by land on that route, though.

 

Migrants and refugees crossing the town of Cakovec, Croatia Saturday 17 October to reach Slovenia

Migrants and refugees
crossing the town of Cakovec, Croatia
Saturday 17 October to reach
Slovenia

Slovenia said migrants would be registered at two border crossings where camps had the capacity of receiving some 8,000 people before continuing their journey to Austria and Germany, the preferred destination of the vast majority, many of them Syrians fleeing war. However, nervousness that Slovenia may follow Hungary’s example in applying strict Schengen border rules and seal off its border with Croatia inflamed the spirits and fears in Croatia. Hungary said it had reinstated border controls on its frontier with Slovenia, effectively suspending Europe’s Schengen system of passport-free travel though it. Both Slovenia and Hungary are part of the Schengen Area while Croatia is not. Slovenia, a small country of 2 million people, says it will allow in as many migrants as it is able to register and accommodate and put the army on standby to aid the effort. But, if the influx continues as it has been, Slovenia would suffocate under pressure of possible hundreds of thousands of migrants and most likely make the move to seal its borders with Croatia.

Syrian migrants in camp Opatovac in Croatia - Saturday 17 October 2015 Photo: Reuters/Marko Durica

Syrian migrants in camp Opatovac
in Croatia – Saturday 17 October 2015
Photo: Reuters/Marko Durica

If such a thing occurred the refugees and migrants reaching Croatia would literally become “trapped” within Croatia with nowhere to go for indefinite lengths of time. With poverty and welfare dependency already at a critical level in Croatia one can fully understand the panic and anger setting in among the population even though the refugees have enjoyed a welcoming, caring and humanitarian reception there so far.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic

Croatian President
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic

This backdrop of realistic fear and panic, in a small and economically challenged country such as Croatia is, has given rise to a greater than expected political and governance crisis with President Grabar-Kitarovic accusing the government of failing to govern and protect the country. “The technical government is not capable of leading the country and allowing me to utilise my executive powers. I shall do that as soon as the Constitution permits me,” stated Grabar-Kitarovic on Saturday 17 October on her Facebook status while on a visit to China, which raised enormous interest and debate in Croatia. Croatia’s president has demanded strict control over the country’s border with Serbia after Hungary closed its own border with Croatia to migrants hoping to reach Western Europe. Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic late Friday urged the government to direct all migrant traffic to official border crossings rather than allow them to enter through illegal routes but her leadership is constantly undermined by the Social Democrat led government’s incessant, egotistic and malicious opposition to her suggestions. The general elections due 8 November certainly appear to have much to do with the government’s opposition and loathsome resistance to the President’s efforts as Social Democrats allege – scandalously and falsely – that the Presidents’ actions have everything to do with trying to make the opposition, HDZ/Croatian Democratic Union, look good and not with leading the country.

This being the case with Social Democrat train of thought and deed, and completely damaging to Croatia as a nation, the President should swiftly take over the leadership via exercising executive powers the Constitution permits, until a new government is sworn in sometime in November – but it seems there are no such powers. Perhaps they could be found if one looked deep enough? In this fast-paced and increasing migration crisis that threatens Croatia’s stability and security a great deal of damage by the irresponsible and politically maliciously inclined government can be done by the time general elections come in November and new government is sworn. But, on Sunday 18 October, President Grabar-Kitarovic stated for Croatian HRT TV that her Facebook status comment was done in irony to minister Ostojic’s outbursts when he said sarcastically that she could solve the crisis with Serbia in five minutes. She said that her statement was not an official one but a Facebook one and that she has no executive powers under the Constitution so she said “when Constitution permits her”.

Migrants and refugees at camp Opatovac Croatia Saturday 17 October 2015

Migrants and refugees at camp
Opatovac Croatia
Saturday 17 October 2015

President’s moves are not surprising,” said Zeljko Olujic, renowned Croatian lawyer and former State Attorney, “she sees things that are against the state and national interests happening in Croatia… She is the keeper of the Constitution and law in Croatia and has announced she will take measures that the Constitution permits her …as President Grabar-Kitarovic has, under the Constitution, great powers in leading the internal and foreign politics… ” He commented that foreign minister Vesna Pusic’s televised statement that the President had no such powers under the Constitution and that President’s statement regarding taking over the powers permitted her under the Constitution were insane, borders with treason and that she should resign her position.
There are speculations pointing to the possibility that by putting in place surveillance of three Constitutional court judges (Court President Jasna Omejec, Judges Slavica Banic and Marko Babic) as well as the Zagreb District Court President, Judge Ivan Turudic, Prime Minister’s Zoran Milanovic’s Social Democrat led government is preparing a coup d’état.
Some say that this story of this attack against the Constitutional Court is larger than the 1970’s  “Watergate” one and that it’s all geared up to secure another mandate of government for the Social Democrat led coalition – mostly made up of former Yugoslav communists or communist sympathisers. The attack against the Constitutional Court reportedly is associated with the alleged illegal arrest and appalling treatment of the former Dinamo Zagreb football club president Zdravko Mamic, who, within his constitutional right, has lodged with the Constitutional Court the question as to whether the new Sports Act, that came into force in August 2015, was passed in accordance with the Constitution. Mamic seeks clarification from the Constitutional Court whether the retroactive application of the so-called “Mamic clause”, within Article 13 Cl. 4 of the Act, was legitimate or whether it breached his rights under the Constitution.

 

Zoran Milanovic Current Prime Minister of Croatia Leader of Social Democratic Party

Zoran Milanovic
Current Prime Minister of Croatia
Leader of Social Democratic Party

And so, reported false opinion polls results, seeming misrepresentation of voter sentiments, and Social Democrats’ stooges keep convincing the power-hungry, gullible Zoran Milanovic that his voter popularity rating is close to and sitting on the tail of Tomislav Karamarko, HDZ opposition conservative leader. Hence, this false portrayal of his popularity seems to have catapulted the tragically misguided Prime Minister into violent, distant from the truth, verbal attacks of the opposition as well as the country’s President and the Constitutional Court – evidently thinking that by such verbal aggression and surveillance – which seems obviously designed with the hope of mounting sweeping and time-wise strategically placed arrests of Constitutional Court Judges – he will win power at the coming elections.

Tomislav Karamarko Leader of HDZ Croatian Democratic Union

Tomislav Karamarko
Leader of HDZ
Croatian Democratic Union

Croatia’s Social Democrats, the left coalition, has boarded an election campaign runaway train that evidently has no limits or qualms about the brutally vile strategies it’s taking to reach the winning outcome at the coming elections. They seem prepared to even destroy Croatia, its independence and fundamental institutions of democracy if they do not win the elections. No surprise there: their predecessors walked out of the Croatian Parliament in 1991, refusing to vote for secession from communist Yugoslavia. High time Croats woke up to these infidels of independence and democracy and voted them right out of the Parliament on 8 November. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Croatia Caught in EU Refugee Bedlam

Refugees stream into Croatia Saturday 19 September 2015 Photo: Marko Mrkonjic/Pixsell

Refugees stream into Croatia
Saturday 19 September 2015
Photo: Marko Mrkonjic/Pixsell

According to Croatian HRT TV news, Saturday 19 September evening edition, 21 000 refugees have entered Croatia from Serbia since Wednesday. The refugees, often referred to as the migrants, mostly from poor or war-torn countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, have streamed into Croatia since Wednesday, after Hungary blocked what had been the main route with a metal and razor-wire fence and riot police at its border with Serbia. Serbian authorities had then steered them and assisted them to Croatia’s borders and after Croatia closed its border with Serbia during the week, the refugees found alternative routes: they walked into Croatia through forests, corn and farm fields.

Crossing the border to Croatia across farms and cornfields

Crossing the border to Croatia
across farms and cornfields

Croatia’s prime minister, Zoran Milanovic wants to redirect the refugees flowing into his country to Hungary and Slovenia. He says Croatia can no longer receive refugees. However, the Hungarian government has, during the past couple of days, raised a barbed-wire fence along some 41 kilometer land border between it and Croatia (the rest of the border is a river) to keep the refugees out. Croatia has already transferred to the Hungarian border some 4,000 refugees and a couple of thousand to the Slovenian border. Both Hungary and Slovenia are resisting receiving the refugees and keep pounding vitriolic comments against Croatia.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanoviuc inspects a refugee food and first aid tent

Croatian Prime Minister
Zoran Milanoviuc inspects
a refugee food and first aid tent

After suddenly finding itself in the path of Europe’s biggest tide of migrants for decades, Croatia said on Friday it could no longer offer them refuge and would wave them on, challenging the EU to find a policy to receive them.
We cannot register and accommodate these people any longer,” Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told a news conference in the capital Zagreb.

“They will get food, water and medical help, and then they can move on. The European Union must know that Croatia will not become a migrant ‘hotspot’. We have hearts, but we also have heads.”

The arrival of 21,000 since Wednesday morning, many crossing fields and some dodging police, has proved too much for Croatia. It cannot sustain the burden economically or facilities wise.

 

The refugee crisis has left the EU scrambling for an effective response. Hungary has begun threatening Croatia that it will not recommend it becomes a Schengen area member state since it cannot contain its borders or offer aid to the influx of refugees. This criticism regarding humanitarianism comes from a country that just built 4-meter fences along its borders and chased off the refugees with tear gas and other types of violence as well as still sending bus loads to the Austrian border!

Police assist refugees in Croatia

Police assist refugees in Croatia

With tempers clearly fraying, anything could happen in EU. Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic on Friday 18 September talked on the telephone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the two agreed that the problem of the current migrant wave had to be solved on the EU’s external borders.

Such a scenario is actually alarming given that the refugees clearly do not want to remain at EU’s external borders – Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Italy…so one wonders what Merkel and Milanovic meant by solving the problem on the EU’s external borders? Would force need to be used?

Refugees in Tovarnik, Croatia waiting in line for food

Refugees in Tovarnik, Croatia
waiting in line for food

Italy and Greece say they cannot cope with migrants coming by sea who, under the EU’s Dublin system, should be given shelter and potentially asylum in the first EU state they enter. Germany, France and other northern states complain Italy and Greece are ignoring the Dublin rules on registering asylum-seekers and helping them travel north through the Schengen area. They now complain Italy and Greece are slow to accept EU help to properly register migrants and send back non-refugees, meaning many can drift across Europe working without documents. Hungary blames Greece for the tens of thousands arriving there this summer and has now fenced off its border with Serbia and its new target to throw blame against is Croatia! Slovenia has also entered the blame and rejection game. It too, like Hungary says it will protect the Schengen borders! Greece and Italy are within the Schengen area also but have not protected the borders and, instead, moved the refugees onward into Europe – let someone else worry about them, would sum it up.

Assisting refugees onto buses in Croatia Saturday 19 September 2015

Assisting refugees onto buses
in Croatia
Saturday 19 September 2015

Germany, France and others criticise eastern states led by Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary for blocking a larger Jean Claude Juncker plan to relocate 120,000 according to quotas. Some say these ex-Communist states lack solidarity after years of receiving EU subsidies and could be penalised by having their grants cut. These eastern European countries accuse Germany of bullying, say relocation will only draw in more immigrants who will, in any case, not want to stay in eastern Europe but will defy the unenforceable Dublin rules and cross Schengen borders to Germany. They say that the EU bailed out Greece on a number of occasions and yet it does not seem to be getting the harsh criticism from Brussels as they are. Obviously EU isn’t going to change its composition of egotistical states any time soon.
Stung by criticism of “Brussels” for not being able to quieten the squabbles between member states affected by the refugee crisis, European Commission officials have noted that their power is limited. Variations in the welcome given to refugees or benefits offered are national prerogatives.

Croatia and refugee crisis in EU

Croatia and
refugee crisis in EU

An EU emergency response system to provide extra frontier guards has been canvassed in Brussels but such a mechanism can only be triggered by invitation – something Athens, caught up in debt crisis and new elections, has yet to issue, reports Reuters.

Comforted by a strong vote on Thursday 17 September for its mandatory quota proposal in the European Parliament, another federalist institution, the European Commission declared this “a clear signal to … ministers … that it is high time to act and finally agree”.
But national leaders insist on first seeking consensus among states. “I feel an allergy to coercion,” their summit’s chairman Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said last week.
Juncker last week suggested a common EU border guard service and some officials believe a single EU asylum system could make better sense than a patchwork of national policies.

Syrian refugees in Croatia

Syrian refugees (or migrants?) in Croatia

Now, one cannot throw caution to the wind and not ponder on the unwanted eventuality of EU setting up large refugee camps in Croatia as part of the solution, given that Croatia is outside the Schengen area. Could that possibility be in what Milanovic and Merkel reportedly agreed upon? That the problem needs to be solved on EU’s external borders! Could Croatia end up being a huge camp in which the refugees are housed until processed, until their refugee status confirmed or rejected and from where they would either be distributed to other EU countries or deported out of EU? Large numbers are in question. It’s estimated that besides the 500,000 that have already entered European Union countries, another 500,000 are expected the coming year. Having in mind points of entry one can estimate that about 200,000 will enter through Greece and then up to Croatia/Hungary. Such overwhelming numbers would have alarming and destructive effects on the culture and life in Croatia as we know it with large doses of security issues to breeding of radicalism and terrorism as has been observed in other EU countries where multiculturalism has been developing for decades.

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic President Of Croatia Photo: Ivo Cagalj/Pixsell

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic
President Of Croatia
Photo: Ivo Cagalj/Pixsell

Croatia’s Vecernji List reports that president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic had Saturday 19 September spoken to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and several state leaders about the migration crisis. She emphasised that the problem of the crisis is not only Croatian but also European and global and that it needs to be solved according to those premises. She said that Croatia would insist on solving the problem as being a global one as opposed to a local one. She expects that some 40,000 refugees will enter Croatia in the coming two days and that measures of security and other matters must be put in place in order to secure stability.
Croatia is not a country of first entry, Serbia is qualified as a safe country and therefore there is no need for thousands of migrants to cross over daily to Croatia, we cannot absorb them. We must, first of all, be realistic, secure safety of our own citizens and the stability of our country. We must know who the people crossing our borders are, that it be under supervision, at official crossings, not illegally, then we need to know where they are going because we cannot take care of so many on a long term basis,” she said.
Now all Croatia needs is a consensus between the Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic and President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic regarding the safety and security but the likelihood of that happening to an ideal level is quite slim with general elections “around the corner”. I do so agree with President Grabar-Kitarovic that the problem is global and the UN must start playing a bigger role. That particularly with view to establishing more refugee camps outside the EU countries, including Serbia if they reach it from Turkey/Greece. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

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