A Croatian nongovernmental organisation has dismissed the Ministry of the Interior's claim that Croatian police were faced with a second wave of unfounded accusations related to violent pushbacks of migrants, claiming that evidence presented over the past four years had not been investigated.

The Centre for Peace Studies NGO on Thursday described as unconvincing the ministry’s statement that its announcing the introduction of independent monitoring of police conduct was prompted by a video recording published on Wednesday, which shows unlawful treatment of migrants by police on the Croatian border.

“Government responds only to pressure from EU”

“(The response) actually seems to have been prompted by a letter from (Home Affairs) Commissioner (Ylva) Johansson, because as always, the Croatian government responds only following pressure from the European Union,” the NGO said.

It expressed satisfaction with the ministry finally admitting the lack of an independent mechanism for monitoring police conduct after trying to convince the European Commission of the contrary since 2018, when it received funding from the EU for the establishment of such a mechanism.

The NGO notes that it is contacted on a daily basis by people wishing to seek asylum who are on Croatia’s territory, and that contrary to the ministry’s claims, those are mostly groups of families with very small children, pregnant women or persons with disabilities.

“After we inform the ministry of their location, personal information, the wish to seek asylum and the need for urgent medical help, very often within the next few hours we are informed by those same people that they have been denied asylum and emergency help and have been deported to Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the NGO says, adding that it is told by the ministry that the groups in question have not been found.