In less than 24 hours, more than 60,000 kuna (€8,000) has been raised to help activist Dragan Umicevic pay the fine he received from the state for helping the Hussiny family from Afghanistan to cross the border into Croatia in 2018, the NGO the non-governmental organisation Are You Syrious? (AYS) announced on Thursday.

Umicevic, who is a volunteer with Are You Syrious, helped the Afghan family to enter Croatia and apply for asylum in March 2018. The police pressed charges against him for assisting in the crossing of the border illegally, and the High Administrative Court has fined him 60,000 kuna and ordered him to pay additional 1,300 kuna (€173) in court costs.

In less than 24 hours, 247 citizens raised a total of 62,691 kuna to help Umicevic pay the fine, AYS said in a statement.

The Hussiny case drew widespread criticism because six-year-old Madina Hussiny was killed by a train on November 21, 2017 during the illegal expulsion of her family from Croatia into Serbia in the middle of the night, which has been recently confirmed in a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

The family were again expelled during the night between March 7 and 8, 2018. After entering Croatia for the third time in the night between March 20 and 21, 2018, fearing another expulsion, they contacted AYS for assistance in seeking asylum.

AYS explained to them that only the police can grant them asylum and referred them to the nearest police checkpoint. Umicevic was asked to go to the border police checkpoint and say that there was a refugee family in their vicinity wishing to apply for asylum.

Although he acted in accordance with the law and civic conscience, he was charged with assisting in the illegal crossing of the state border, AYS said, noting that the Ministry of the Interior had demanded a draconian fine of 320,000 kuna (€42,700) and prison time for Umicevic, as well as a ban on the operation of AYS, the NGO said.

“The people of Croatia have shown they will not allow an act of kindness to be punished, especially when real criminals are given far more lenient sentences or walk away scot free,” AYS said. “We are proud of the messages of support we are getting and, most of all, we are proud of our volunteer Dragan who was one of the few people who lent a helping hand to the family of the girl Madina in the most difficult of times for them.”