During a parliamentary debate on the law on travel documents on Wednesday, Interior Ministry State Secretary Zarko Katic said that in the last ten years, 94 minors born in Democratic Republic of Congo were issued with Croatian passports. Pročitaj više

“In the past ten years, travel document were given to 94 minors born in DR Congo,” Katic responded to MP Hrvoje Zekanovic (HDS) who enquired about the procedure to issue children from that African country with Croatian passports. According to the law on Croatian citizenship, a child with foreign citizenship can be given Croatian citizenship when adopted by Croatian citizens, Katic said.

‘How did children from Congo get Croatian documents’

“When there are valid adoption documents, adoptive parents can go to the registrar’s office and just like for their biological child, enter the adopted children in the Register of Births and Citizens, and then come to the police department and apply for a passport,” Katic explained.

Marin Miletic (Most party) was also interested in how children from DR Congo were issued Croatian passports. He asked how many children from DR Congo and other African countries were adopted in Croatia, who supervises these procedures and who prevents possible child trafficking. “If the data is kept up-to-date and simply exchanged, why is it so difficult to get that information,” asked Miletic.

Bajs: Investigate the case and tighten controls

Zeljko Pavic (Social Democrats) sees the solution in digitisation and computerisation to link data and registrars. “Then passports will not be issued to people who are not our citizens and from countries that have banned the adoption of their children.”

Damir Bajs (DB NL) said that the case of adopting children from DR Congo should be investigated and controls should be tightened because the birth certificates and passports of these children were issued by Croatian authorities.

“It is contrary to Croatia’s legal and constitutional order. A child cannot be adopted by two women or two men or one woman and a man who does not know whether he is a man or a woman based on some kind of document, and a child from DR Congo who has never seen its potential mother and father and does not even know where Croatia is,” Zeljko Sacic (Croatian Sovereignists) claimed.

Amendments simplify the issuance of passports for children

The MPs supported the final draft amendments to the Law on Travel Documents of Croatian Citizens because they make the procedure for issuing passports for children simpler. They will enable either parent, as the child’s legal representative, to submit an application and collect their child’s passport, which was not possible until now.

By inspecting the birth registrar, it will be seen if there are notes on the deprivation of parental capacity of one of the parents, in which case the issuance of a passport will not be allowed, and if this is determined subsequently, the passport will be cancelled.

A number of difficulties have been observed in the incumbent law, when one of the parents cannot collect a passport for objective reasons because, for example, they work on a ship, abroad or in prison, Katic said.

Last year, 285,392 passports were issued, of which 210,617 were issued at police stations, and 74,775 at diplomatic and consular offices, the state secretary said.