International human rights associations on Thursday described the EU's decision on Croatia's entry to the Schengen area as a bad precedent for the future enlargement of the passport-free travel area, claiming that, with their treatment of migrants, Croatian authorities and border police violate EU and international law.

At a meeting of EU ministers of the interior earlier in the day Croatia received unanimous support from the EU member states to join the passport-free travel area.

However, eight leading humanitarian and human rights organisations claim Croatian police use violence against helpless people, including mistreatment and torture.

In a statement issued today, they seek a reform of the Croatian border monitoring mechanism and call for ensuring that human rights violations are promptly and thoroughly investigated by responsible authorities in pursuit of full accountability.

The joint statement was signed by Amnesty International, Border Violence Monitoring Network, Centre for Peace Studies, Danish Refugee Council, ECRE, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and International Rescue Committee.

“The Decision on December 8, 2022, by the Council of the European Union to admit Croatia into the Schengen area despite substantiated reports of frequent breaches of EU and international human rights law by Croatian authorities and its border guards shows disregard for the EU’s commitment to fundamental rights…  and sets a bad precedent for future Schengen enlargements,” the eight organisations say in their statement.

What is unfolding at Croatia’s and other EU external borders is a rule of law crisis in which fundamental rights violations, including the right to asylum, are met with widespread impunity, they say.

They note that fundamental human rights, including the right to asylum, are violated on Croatia’s and other external EU borders with impunity.

From early August to the end of November, a total of 1,395 people reported having been illegally pushed back from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to data collected as part of the Danish Refugee Council’s Protection Monitoring in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Over the years, EU institutions have repeatedly turned a blind eye to overwhelming evidence of systemic human rights violations at EU external borders, including Croatia, and rewarded heavy-handed tactics that fortified borders and prevented people in search of protection from entering the EU at any cost,” the organisations say.

They believe that the Council’s decision to welcome Croatia to the Schengen club, despite known documented abuses, is a symptom of a higher EU policy imperative that repeatedly sacrifices fundamental rights for what is portrayed as border security.

The Schengen Borders Code, which Croatia committed to apply in its entirety, expressly requires member states to comply with international and EU law, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Refugee Convention, and in particular an obligation to comply with the principle of non-refoulement – the practice of not forcing refugees or asylum seekers to return to a country where they would be at risk of being subjected to persecution – in the process of border control and management, the statement says.