Immigration: Organizations Demand Croatia to Remain Out of Schengen Until it Improves Asylum Practices

Did immigration issues drive us to Brexit? What is the word on the streets right now?

Nine organizations and initiatives working with the victims of border violence have called for Croatia to be kept out of the Schengen area until its government stops the illegal and violent pushback of migrants.

Civil society organizations and activists from Croatia, the Ombudsperson’s Office, and a variety of international governmental and non-governmental actors as UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Council for Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Medecins Sans Frontiers and Asylum Protection Center that for three years now have been warning about the violent police practices used on refugees and migrants. Now they want Croatia’s Schengen membership to become conditional, and let the country out of the borderless zone unless it improves its asylum practices.

According to Lovorka Šošić, Centre for Peace Studies – Croatia activists and volunteers from the Border Violence Monitoring Network have been for years now working in the border areas in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, collecting testimonies, and publishing reports that describe the illegal actions of the Croatian border police and define the trends.

“The action taken by the police is structural and intentional, and includes denying people entry to Croatia and pushing them back to neighboring countries outside of any established procedures or access to any international protection system, often using force and violence,” she explains in a piece written for liberties.eu.

Šošić further clarifies as long as there are no mechanisms for monitoring police conduct and there is total lack of official supervision of officer behavior, police practices remain unsanctioned by responsible bodies.

For Schengen membership, all candidate countries have to undergo the Schengen evaluation, which includes all parts of the Schengen acquis. For Šošić, Croatia is not respecting nor applying relevant international law standards and the Schengen Border Code.

“Croatia is currently violating Article 13 of the SBC which provisions: A person who has crossed a border illegally and who has no right to stay on the territory of the Member State concerned shall be apprehended and made subject to procedures respecting Directive 2008/115/EC,” she writes.

A day after the publication of Šošić’s call for Croatia to be kept out of the Schengen for now, the Croatian immigrant rights organization called “Welcome” placed a sign at the border between Croatia and Bosnia that reads “Welcome to Croatia – country of torture.”

The European Commission asserted that Croatia has taken the necessary measures to ensure that the conditions for the application of all the Schengen rules and standards are met, on October 22 this year.

The decision of the European Commission announced on Tuesday sparked criticisms among many, in particular, Slovenian officials.

The Prime Minister of Slovenia Marjan Sarec said the decision was political, insisting that Croatia should first implement the arbitration ruling on its border dispute with Slovenia. Whereas, Slovenian politician and Member of the European Parliament Tanja Fajon called the decision by the Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker “unacceptable”.

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