Croatian border authorities are systemically pushing back potential asylum seekers, reports from several European media outlets have confirmed. Six pushbacks to Bosnia were captured on video. Among those forced across the border were a pregnant woman, disabled persons and small children.
Human rights activists slammed Croatian authorities for violent pushbacks of migrants and called for the abolition of the EU's Frontex border agency. Croatia denies taking violent measures against migrants.
A report by the European Court of Auditors has slammed Frontex for failing to provide "sufficiently effective" assistance to countries looking to tackle illegal migration.
Twenty-one police officers from Estonia, Lithuania and Poland are in Slovenia where they will help authorities strengthen checks at the border with Croatia as part of the fight against undocumented migration.
A new report has placed a spotlight on the migrant smuggling business and other illicit activities running through the Western Balkans, including drugs and money laundering. The report estimates that the migrant smuggling business alone could be worth up to €50 million per year in the region.
In an article published on Wednesday, the British newspaper revealed that at least 40,000 people seeking asylum in the European Union have been pushed back illegally. These operations have led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people.
A Balkans-based network of human rights groups has released a report on pushbacks against migrants in Greece and Croatia. It claims that systematic violence by Croatian and Greek authorities often amounts to "torture or inhuman and degrading treatment."
Migrants and refugees in Bosnian camps are becoming infected with COVID-19 at an increasing rate. Humanitarian workers say most cases are mild and the situation is "under control."
Croatian police are investigating reports that an Afghan woman was sexually harassed at the country’s border with Bosnia-Herzegovina in the middle of February. She says she was held at knife-point and asked to strip naked whilst being touched by officers.
The IOM in Bosnia has called for the international community to take "urgent action to end violent pushbacks and collective expulsions of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, including minors, along the Croatian border with Bosnia Herzegovina."
The UN refugee agency UNHCR says it has observed "several hundred cases" of suspected pushbacks in the Aegean Sea since the beginning of last year. It is stepping up pressure on Greece to investigate the reports.
In the town of Velika Kledusa, most migrants have only one ambition: to get to Croatia and continue their journey to western Europe. Some of them have already attempted the crossing more than twenty times. Each time they try, they risk being pushed back by force by Croatian police.