Croatia’s brutal treatment and pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina has been widely documented for several years, with the most recent reports revealing systematic destruction of migrants’ belongings, including cell phones and identity papers. The country has also expanded its immigration enforcement infrastructure with the opening in late 2023 of a “migrants reception and processing centre” in abandoned military barracks Krnjak municipality.
“Burn piles”
In late October, photos and other documentary emerged revealing Croatian border police “burning clothing, mobile phones and passports seized from asylum seekers attempting to cross into the European Union before pushing them back to Bosnia,” according to The Guardian. The evidence, much of it contained in report by the NGO No Name Kitchen(NKK), is the latest in a series of reports dating back several years attesting to Croatia’s draconian response to the migration challenges confronting it and the rest of Europe.