Migrants’ Mass Expulsions from Croatia Raise Legal Doubts

Besides such abuses, experts also say the procedure could be illegal. "There are some doubts over the legality of what we are seeing happening between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of European law," Italian jurist and migration expert Gianfranco Schiavone told BIRN.

Not allowed to seek asylum

Asylum seekers are protesting at the IND (Immigration and Naturalisation Services) in The Hague, the Netherlands, 13 April 2023, to draw attention to the long waiting times during asylum procedure. Photo: EPA-EFE/REMKO DE WAAL

A few weeks after the first migrants and refugees were returned to Bosnia's northwest Una-Sana Canton, Mustafa Ruznic, the canton's Prime Minister, sent an open letter to Bosnia's state security and foreign ministers, as well as to the head of the Foreigners Affairs Service, SPS, demanding an explanation for the increased number of migrants and refugees reportedly returned from Croatia to Bosnia based on a bilateral readmission agreement.

Ruznic said a significant number of them were unknown to the authorities and might present security risks, and complained of not being informed about the ongoing construction of a detention centre in the Lipa Temporary Reception Centre, situated in the Canton's administrative centre, Bihac.

Croatian and Bosnian authorities later explained that the mass returns were taking place on the basis of a bilateral agreement between the two states signed in 2002 and annexed again in September 2011 with a specific plan for its implementation, but never actually put into use. 

Nenad Nesic, Bosnia's Minister of Security, denied a new possible crisis in Bosnia's parliament on April 19, a day after he met Ruznic in Bihac. 

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