Visits by Croatia’s National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) are currently suspended, impairing access to data and information relating to immigration detention and removal measures. As such, when the GDP contacted the country’s Ombudsperson’s office requesting information pertaining to immigration detention practices during the pandemic, the office instead recommended contacting the country’s Interior Ministry to obtain relevant information. To-date, however, the GDP has not received a response from the ministry.
As the GDP reported in June (see 22 June update), Croatian police have reportedly engaged in violent border pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers during the Covid-19 crisis. Although the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment have both condemned these actions, the Border Violence Monitoring Network continued to report similar episodes throughout July. On 16 July, for instance, Croatian border police apprehended a group of five male Afghan refugees aged between 16 and 30 at the Batrovci-Bajakovo border crossing. Forced to line up along the side of the road, the group was allegedly kicked, punched, and slapped, and their heads were slammed against a wall. They were eventually returned to Serbia. On another occasion, a 42-year-old Tunisian man was allegedly apprehended in a field near Vinkovci, forced to sit at gunpoint; robbed of 1600 EUR, his mobile phone, and backpack; handcuffed; and driven towards the Serbian border where a border officer stamped on his leg – breaking the bone.
- Ombudsman of the Republic of Croatia, Email Exchange with the Global Detention Project, 22 July 2020, www.globaldetentionproject.org
- Border Violence Monitoring Network, “They Kicked Us, They Punched Us, They Slapped Us,” 16 July 2020, https://www.borderviolence.eu/violence-reports/july-16-2020-1700-border-check-point-croatia-serbia-border/
- Border Violence Monitoring Network, “They Stamped on his Leg, Causing it to Break,” 14 July 2020, https://www.borderviolence.eu/violence-reports/july-14-2020-0000-near-vinkovci-croatia/
- Global Detention Project (GDP), “Immigration Detention in Croatia: Shrinking Space for Independent Monitoring,” April 2019, https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/europe/croatia
