An Italian reporter who accompanied a group of Italian MEPs during a visit to Croatia participated in an attempt to organise several migrants to illegally cross the Croatian border from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian border police confirmed for Croatian state news agency Hina on Tuesday.

The reporter, identified as Paola L., was caught on 30 January during a police patrol on the Bosnian side of the border near the town of Bosanska Bojna.

An adviser to the director of the Bosnian border police, Svevlad Hoffmann, said that the police confirmed that the reporter had permission to stay in Bosnia and that she had said that she was in contact with her Italian colleagues who were covering the visit by Italian MEPs to Croatia and the border area.

“The reporter requested the Bosnian border police to allow a group of illegal migrants to enter Croatia so that the MEPs could see how Croatia’s police treat them,” said Hoffmann.

Bosnia’s border police denied the request and warned the reporter that she was in violation of regulations by being in the border region and requested her to move away, which she did only to return later in the company of 11 illegal migrants from Afghanistan who had been registered in Bosnia.

The police prevented them from crossing the border and returned them to the migrant reception centre in Velika Kladusa.

Hoffmann explained that an investigation was still underway and did not exclude the possibility of criminally charging the reporter.

Four Italian Socialist and Social Democrat MEPs, Pietro Bartolo, Brando Benifei, Pierfrancesco Majorino and Alessandra Moretti, accompanied by a group of reporters, last week went to the Croatia-Bosnia border area, saying they wanted to check how Croatia’s police were treating illegal migrants attempting to cross the border.

Croatia’s border police stopped them when they tried to cross the border where this is not allowed.

Croatian Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic described the attempt as another in a series of provocations directed against Croatian police.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic called this incident a political performance and said that no one is allowed to violate the law.

“The four MEPs were not an official delegation. Official visits are arranged via the European Parliament and that this was not the case, said Plenkovic and added, “the main rule is to respect the legal climate of the country you go to.”