Speaking at a news conference in Zagreb on Thursday, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said he hoped there would be no new wave of migrants coming into Europe after the Taliban had returned to power in Afghanistan following a withdrawal of US and allied troops from the country.

On Wednesday, European Union member countries discussed the migrant crisis along the Belarus border with Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland. Another meeting will be held next week, focusing on the developments in Afghanistan, Bozinovic said, adding the discussions will result in “concrete conclusions.”

The EU will not cave in under the pressure Belarus is exerting by allowing irregular migrants to cross into the three EU member countries, he said.

At the Wednesday’s meeting, the ministers agreed that the scenes Europe witnessed in 2015, when the countries were exposed to a big migrant tide prompted by the developments in Syria, should not happen again.

The European Union cannot take in migrants on a mass scale anymore, Bozinovic said on Thursday.

He added that Europe must take an active approach in preventing a new migrant wave and cooperate more with the UNHCR and countries in Afghanistan’s neighbourhood so that Afghans fleeing the Taliban regime could find a safe place as close as possible to their country.

“I am hopeful that we will avoid the scenarios we witnessed a few years ago,” he said.

Those who need protection should be reallocated in an organised way under resettlement programmes and not be left to international smuggling rings, Bozinovic said, adding that Croatia will primarily be engaged via the UNHCR to help vulnerable groups, such as women and girls.