The European Commissioner for Migration, Ylva Johansson, visited Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday 18 and Friday 19 February to assess the situation of migrants and the way in which both countries manage migration flows.
At a press conference with the President of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zoran Tegeltija, on 19 February, the Commissioner called, among other things, for the EU candidate country to develop the infrastructure to deal with asylum seekers and said that the “humanitarian crisis we saw in December could have been avoided” with better structures in place.
At the end of December, thousands of migrants were left homeless after the fire in Lipa camp (see EUROPE 12628/17).
The day before, she had met Croatian officials and reminded them on the spot that pushback at the borders was “unacceptable” and that the fundamental rights of people arriving in Croatia to file an asylum application had to be “respected”.
The Commissioner stressed that the Croatian authorities had committed to “investigating” allegations of pushback and to establishing a better monitoring mechanism at the external borders.
With regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina, she additionally said on Friday that the country could also apply the Pact’s new rules on border procedures or return procedures for irregular migrants. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)