The suspension of Schengen cannot stop migrants, the Jutarnji List daily wrote on Sunday, stating that the Ministry of the Interior sees a solution only in an EU regulation that would enable the immediate return of illegal immigrants. Pročitaj više

Slovenia’s decision to introduce border controls at the border with Croatia in order to raise the level of security after terrorist attacks in Europe, which are related to illegal migrants and the war in Israel and Palestine, did not provoke a reaction from the Croatian authorities.

Croatia refuses the help of other neighboring countries in guarding the external border, we do not want Frontex here, but in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the regime at the borders is the same as it was before those events, and the level of security has not been raised to a higher level.

According to experts, the Croatian police are doing everything they can at the border, in accordance with the rules of the European Union, stricter border controls towards Hungary do not make sense, because it is actually an exit route, not an entry route, the external border of the Union towards Bosnia and Herzegovina is strictly protected, as far as can protect, the army on the border does not make any sense, and fences, the Ministry of the Interior unofficially told Jutarnji List, would not prevent the waves.

The only effective measure that would reduce the influx of illegal migrants at the EU’s external borders, sources from the Ministry of Interior tell us, is a change to the EU Asylum Procedure Regulation, which is expected by the end of this Commission’s mandate.

This Regulation would allow states to return illegal migrants to where they came from under an urgent procedure. Frontex should then be involved with its equipment, i.e. providing aircraft that would transport illegal migrants to their homeland. A record number of illegal migrants entered Croatia this year – more than 60,000.

“The army is not trained for such tasks, they have their constitutional task, and the policemen are trained and have all the equipment. In addition to the 6,700 policemen guarding the border, there are also 2,000 members of the intervention and special police operating in the field. Hungary has a fence, so more migrants enter them than Croatia, and the configuration of the terrain in Croatia is such that the fence would not be effective. That’s why the only solution is the new Pact on Migration and Asylum and the agreement with Frontex to return illegal migrants under an urgent procedure,” an official at the Ministry of the Interior explained.

The problem, he says, is also BiH, where migrants are only allowed to go towards Croatia, and this, he believes, should be solved by Frontex, which would come to the neighboring country, Jutarnji List wrote.