The head of Croatia's Border Police Directorate, Zoran Niceno, said on Friday that the migrant pressure at Croatia's borders is expected to intensify with the arrival of warmer weather, after having been 28% lower in the first two months of 2021.

“With warmer weather, migrant pressure at our borders always starts to become more intense. This year, after three to four years of growth, we have a large decrease, so in the first two months there were 28% fewer attempts to cross the borders,” Niceno told the RTL broadcaster.

This also indicates a change in route, so Hungary and Romania have a significantly larger number of illegal border crossing attempts at the moment as migrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia go through them to Europe.

“With the arrival of warmer weather, attempts to cross the border into Croatia will intensify, given the fact that there are 2,158 migrants in Una-Sana Canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina, although we estimate that the number is at least twice as high because migrants are also staying outside camps,” Niceno said.

“We are prepared, we invest in technical equipment. In addition to the 20 existing stationary camera systems and 19 mobile ones, the procurement of another eight stationary and eight mobile systems is underway, which will contribute to the quality of border protection and better data. Data are very important because with better technical coverage we spare manpower and react in advance to events at the place of illegal crossing,” he added.

Niceno said that 17 criminal complaints had been filed to date for violence against migrants.

Also, disciplinary action has been taken against five police officers, two of whom were given conditional termination of employment, while others were fined, Niceno said.