In recent presidential elections in Croatia, the powerful right-wing lost to the social democrats, led by Zoran Milanovic. However, the political turnaround will have little impact on migration policy in the short term. Here’s why.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR has published a series of "ambitious but achievable" recommendations for the Croatian and German presidencies of the EU Council to make 2020 "the year of change for robust refugee protection," according to a statement published on January 9.
Croatia has assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council -- for the first time. The youngest EU member state is having a chance to prove itself on the world stage amid serious allegations of migrant abuse at its borders.
More than 120,000 irregular migrants and refugees arrived in the EU this year, mostly by sea. Greece saw a dramatic increase in arrivals, while arrivals in Italy and Spain declined. We take a look at clandestine and irregular migration movements to Europe in 2019.
As 2019 draws to a close, the European border agency Frontex has released its latest reports about fluctuating trends across migrant arrivals to Europe. It found that arrivals were falling in the western and central Mediterranean and growing in the eastern Mediterranean as well as the Balkans.
Bosnia-Herzegovina has begun to move migrants from an informal camp near the country's northern border with Croatia. The site in Vucjak fell into international disrepute for its squalid living conditions.
Two Nigerian students, who were in Croatia for a sports competition and had visas, say they were wrongly deported to Bosnia. Croatian police likely suspected them of being illegal migrants based only on their skin color.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have warned that the conditions of migrants stuck on the border in Bosnia are worsening by the day. The organization says migrants there are forced to live in inhumane conditions and that they are reportedly subjected to violence by Croatian police when they try to cross the border.
Croatian police on Friday fired on a group of migrants trying to irregularly reach neighboring Slovenia, local officials said. One man was critically injured. Thousands of migrants trying to reach western Europe are stuck in the Balkans.
As more and more refugees and migrants try to make it to Western Europe via the western Balkan route, and with winter approaching, the EU and NGOs have warned of a humanitarian crisis in the Vucjak migrant camp and similar facilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina near the border with Croatia. On Friday, hundreds of locals protested against the migrants' presence.
The organisation Human Rights Watch does not want Croatia to be allowed to join the Schengen area because of alleged abuses against migrants committed by Croatian authorities.
Asurma Arab fled Afghanistan to seek safety in Europe with her family. Over two years later she remains stranded in Serbia, her family torn apart. On the last attempt to cross the border, her husband and oldest daughter managed to get past Croatian guards, leaving Asurma and three younger children behind.