The Croatian Interior Ministry on Thursday denied an article published by The Guardian claiming that Croatian border police are burning personal belongings and documents of migrants trying to enter the EU and then sending them back to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The events referred to by The Guardian have not been confirmed and the Independent Monitoring Mechanism has not received any reports and has no information about the allegations, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Citing a report by the humanitarian organisation No Name Kitchen (NNK), The Guardian reports that Croatian border police appear to be burning clothes, mobile phones and passports of asylum seekers who have tried to enter the European Union before pushing them back to Bosnia.

Ministry: Police allows international protection for all who want it

The report includes photos of burnt belongings and testimonies of sexual assaults and beatings by police.

The Guardian also reports that many “are stopped by Croatian border police and searched, with some reportedly robbed and violently pushed back into Bosnia, where thousands of asylum seekers can be stranded in often freezing temperatures.”

In its response to the article, the Interior Ministry says that Croatian police have faced allegations regarding the treatment of migrants since 2016 “because they consistently carry out measures to protect the EU’s external border and prevent illegal entries.”

Regarding the allegation of sexual assault, the ministry says that it is “completely incomprehensible that such an incident is not immediately reported to the police.”

The ministry describes the allegations of pushbacks as manipulation and says that the Croatian police have never carried out pushbacks, but fulfil legal procedures and obligations in accordance with the Schengen Code.

The police allow access to the international protection system to all persons who wish to do so and have entered Croatia or who have expressed such an intention at the border crossing, as evidenced by the data on applications for international protection, the ministry said.

“The Ministry of the Interior has zero tolerance for possible unlawful actions by police officers”

The ministry notes that 12,872 people expressed the intention to seek international protection in 2022 and 68,114 people in 2023.

The Ministry adds that it has a defined system of internal control of the legality of police behaviour, with all complaints going through a series of checks.

“The Ministry of the Interior has zero tolerance for possible unlawful acts committed by police officers and for the non-prosecution of crimes or offences committed by police officers against migrants, and condemns this in the strongest terms.”

The Ministry recalls that Croatia was the first country to introduce the Independent Monitoring Mechanism for Police Behaviour in cooperation with the European Commission, which demonstrates transparency and enables independent investigations in all cases.

The mechanism, whose purpose is to ensure effective independent monitoring of police behaviour towards irregular migrants and persons seeking international protection, is the first and only one of its kind in the EU, the ministry said.

Investigations into allegations much more difficult due to delayed reports

Regarding the allegation of sexual assault, the ministry says that it is “completely incomprehensible that such an incident is not immediately reported to the police.”

The ministry notes that it receives such reports from humanitarian organisations and NGOs with considerable delay, which makes investigating the allegations much more difficult.

It adds that such reports are most often filed in BiH by migrants who have tried to enter Croatia illegally several times so far, but were prevented from doing so by the Croatian police.

Smuggling rings run by migrants, mostly Afghans, in Bosnia and Herzegovina often beat migrants and take their personal belongings or even kidnap them to demand ransom from their families

“The reports do not contain personal data of the alleged victims and most of them do not contain information about at least the approximate time and place of the alleged incidents,” the ministry says, noting that despite the insufficient information, the competent services have reviewed all reports to determine whether the behaviour of the police was in accordance with the law.

The Ministry notes that the one-day deadline set by The Guardian for a response was too short to check whether the incidents described were reported to the police and whether they had any information about them.

The Croatian police have so far registered numerous cases of false reports

“We therefore call on reporters and others who have information about these and other incidents to contact us or independent bodies such as the Independent Monitoring Mechanism and the Ombudsperson so that we can additionally verify the allegations,” the ministry says, pointing out that smuggling rings run by migrants, mostly Afghans, in Bosnia and Herzegovina often beat migrants and take their personal belongings or even kidnap them to demand ransom from their families.

Ministry says that such reports are most often filed in BiH by migrants who have tried to enter Croatia illegally several times so far, but were prevented from doing so by the Croatian police

The Croatian police have so far registered numerous cases of false reports and injuries in accidents or physical altercations between migrants, says the ministry.

Regarding the allegations that Croatian police burn migrants’ belongings, the ministry says that they throw away and sometimes destroy their personal belongings when trying to cross the border illegally in order to make their identification more difficult because, as persons seeking international protection, they do not want to be deported to Croatia, which is not their final destination.

The Ministry emphasises that this is evidenced by a survey conducted by the International Organisation for Migration in migrant camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It shows that migrants do not want to stay in Croatia, but manipulate the asylum system in order to reach the EU country of their choice.