Croatia's Interior Ministry on Thursday reported on "the second wave of unfounded accusations" against the Croatian border police after the German news website Der Spiegel published footage purporting to show the brutal police treatment of migrants crossing the border from Bosnia into Croatia.

Rejecting the latest accusations, the ministry said in a statement that it would like to remind “that the first wave coincided with the adoption of the decision on meeting all technical requirements for the accession to the Schengen Area, as well as with the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.”

“Both of the previously mentioned waves of accusations originate from the same source, i.e. a group of non-governmental organisations which have been and still are active in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while none of them are active in the territory of the Republic of Croatia,” says the ministry.

“Their sole objective is to discredit the Republic of Croatia, to negate the facts that Croatia has the right to protect its border and their final goal is creating pressure and fabricating a negative image in the public in order to prevent the adoption of the decision on our membership in the Schengen Area.”

The ministry stressed that Croatia did not protect its border for the sake of membership of the Schengen area and to obtain EU funds for police equipment.

“The Croatian police protect the border from illegal migration, from illegal actions and dangers which can be connected to persons without documents and identity, which is done in order to provide peace and security to the citizens of Croatia.”

Vicious circle of secondary migration

Mass fights, attacks on citizens and conflicts between migrants themselves which often have fatal outcomes, as witnessed by the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are not reported or questioned by these organisations. “The only thing which can be questioned is Croatia’s right to protects its border,” the statement said.

Illegal migrants using the so-called Balkan route do not want to be registered. When caught in Croatia, they apply for asylum and sooner or later they continue their illegal journey, most often to Austria, Germany or Italy.

This creates a vicious circle of secondary migration, because destination countries return illegal migrants to Croatia who then make repeated attempts to reach their destination until they succeed, and of significant abuse of the international protection system in Croatia. In most cases, the illegal migrants are single men aged between 20 and 45 coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Bangladesh, Algeria and Morocco, the ministry said.

The ministry said that it had informed the foreign media of these facts several times, but that they had ignored them, just as they had ignored reports of Croatian police rescuing migrants in Croatia many times.

“We have warned foreign media about this matter on multiple occasions; however, since they do not publish such information, as well as the numerous examples when migrants were rescued in the territory of Croatia, it becomes obvious that they do not believe these facts would be interesting to their readers.”

“Aware of the fact that the actions which we are accused of can have a negative effect on the Croatian police, we are the first Member State in the European Union which opened discussions with the European Commission, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and other stakeholders and we are ready to establish an independent monitoring mechanism for actions taken at the border,” the statement said.

As regards the footage posted by Der Spiegel, the ministry said it was aware of its content before its publication and that it had been thoroughly analysed. It said that the footage contained “a series of inconsistencies and contradictions, both in the behaviour as well as in the clothing of the participants, therefore it is impossible to confirm with certainty that these are regular members of the Croatian police.”

“We do not tolerate any violence in border protection, nor is it part of our procedures; therefore, we conclude that we have not recorded any actions taken on the date and location mentioned in the statement, ” the statement said.

The ministry said that, as in all previous cases, it would look into the allegations and inform the public and the European Commission of its findings.

Addressing a press conference later on, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said that illegal migrants never even considered using legal border crossing points to enter Croatia. He said that those were mostly young men without families who come to Bosnia and Herzegovina and are put in organised accommodation near the border with Croatia.

He said that police were required by law to prevent and turn away anyone trying to enter the country illegally. He said that some of the migrants, even after applying for and being granted asylum in Croatia, organise themselves again to get to Germany, Austria, Switzerland or Italy illegally.

“That is something we have been drawing attention to for years. Migrants’ countries of destination must make it clear whether these people are welcome there or not. The Croatian police are under a heavy burden while these new documents are being prepared. If they cross the Croatian border illegally, it means that we do not guard the EU’s external border well, and if they do not pass through, then we face attacks like this one which mainly come from non-governmental organisations,” Bozinovic said.