This operations update no.1 provides an updated situation in the country and how the Croatian Red Cross teams have adapted their response to meet the changing migration situation. This update also reports the latest Croatian Red Cross progress of the Emergency Plan of Action. Additional funding is needed in order to support the Croatian Red Cross to conduct the response activities within this Emergency Plan of Action.
Summary of Situation
After the closing of the border between Hungary and Serbia and shifting the migratory trail through Croatia, from 16 September 2015 to 7 March 2016, approximately of 656,830 migrants have entered Croatia and have been registered by the Croatian authorities. In 2016 a total of 101,578 migrants arrived to the Winter Reception Transit Camp (WRTC) in Slavonski Brod in Croatia by train from Šid, Serbia. In the WRTC in Slavonski Brod ,migrants are registered and provided with humanitarian aid and health care. After registration, migrants board the train which takes them to Dobova, located in the Croatian-Slovenian border crossing point.
On 2 October 2015, CHF 350,909 was released from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to meet the immediate emergency needs of 70,700 beneficiaries by providing food and non-food items, hygiene kits and restoring family links services. On 1 December 2015, an operation update was published informing on a budget increase to CHF 360,909 due to the winterisation needs and in response to the relocation of the main reception camp in Slavonski Brod. The timeframe of the operation was extended until 30 January 2016.
On 17 October 2015, after closing of the “green border” (illegal crossing points through fields) between Hungary and Croatia, people were redirected to Slovenia and since then it has been the only exit crossing from Croatia.
On 9 February 2016, an Emergency Appeal was launched seeking CHF 2,601,799 to support the National Society to respond to the needs of 175,000 beneficiaries for six months. Since the launch of the Emergency Appeal on 9 February, there has been a significant change in the migratory situation in Croatia. On January 2016 the number of people arriving to Croatia decreased in line with the winter conditions and due to the new entry and transit procedures in the countries on the migratory route. Consequently, the number of migrants returning from the Slovenian border to Croatia increased as well as the number of centres where returned migrants stay in Croatian reception camps.
On 18 February 2016, the Heads of Police of the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Slovenia, the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia agreed to enhance cooperation in the migration flow management and urgently adopted new measures, taking into account new criteria and restrictions introduced by the states along the migratory route. New standardised registration, controlled transfer, restrictive entry and transfer conditions were agreed by all signatory parties. The number of people arriving in Croatia has decreased significantly compared to the previous period, especially the peak months from September to November 2015. According to the Ministry of Interior (MoI), a total of 34,086 migrants arrived in February 2016 while in March 2016, 1,575 migrants were reported, which makes a 95.4% decrease. However, since the new restrictive entry procedures came into effect, a significant number of migrants were denied access and had to return from Slovenia.
Since mid of February 2016, the reception centres for migrants and asylum seekers in Zagreb and in Kutina have also been used for accommodation of returnees from Slovenia and the Croatian Red Cross teams regularly provide them with necessary assistance. The new trend that has been observed is that more migrants have applied for asylum during the second half of February and in the beginning of March.
On 26 February 2016, the Croatian government adopted draft amendments to the laws on border control and on defence to allow the armed forces to help the police in guarding the frontier when that is necessary for security or humanitarian reasons. The Minister of Interior said that armed forces would be deployed for border control only exceptionally and in accordance with instructions from the police.
As of 26 February, reported by the MoI officials, Croatia has received more than 450 migrants returned from Slovenia, the majority come from Afghanistan, but also from Syria and Iraq.
On 8 March 2016, after the EU Summit announcing the closure of the Balkan trail, the Croatian Government announced the Balkan trail closed and since that time there have been no new trains with migrants in transit arriving in the Slavonski Brod Winter Reception Transit Camp. However, at the moment there are 320 migrants in the Camp and another 200 migrants in Kutina and Zagreb – Kutina facility for asylum seekers and another one in Zagreb (hotel Porin), who are stranded in Croatia. New individual arrivals of migrants might still happen. Also there are no signs or official announcement that the Slavonski Brod Camp will be closed as a significant number of migrants is accommodated there.