In Croatia, Migrants Are Welcome Until They’re Not

( …) “It was a scene that once again underscored the inability of European governments to comprehend and prepare for the continent’s biggest wave of mass migration since the second world war. On Wednesday, Croatia’s prime minister, Zoran Milanović, had optimistically declared the country was “ready to accept and direct those people”. But by Thursday, his government had discovered that this crisis is beyond what any single country can deal with on an unplanned, unilateral basis – even with the best of intentions.

Less than 24 hours after Milanović’s charitable declaration, interior minister Ranko Ostrojić backtracked. “Croatia will not be able to receive more people,” Ostrojić said, claiming that an earlier promise to create a human corridor to Slovenia was in fact only a pledge to provide a much shorter passage to Zagreb, the Croatian capital.”

GUARDIAN / “Croatia overwhelmed by volume of refugees crossing from Serbia”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/17/croatia-overwhelmed-by-volume-of-refugees-crossing-from-serbia

In Croatia, Migrants Are Welcome Until They’re Not

BY SIOBHÁN O'GRADY / SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 - 2:42 PM / http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/17/in-croatia-migrants-are-welcome-until-theyre-not/

Just one day after Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said migrants stuck in Serbia would be welcome in Croatia, his interior minister is walking back on the offer. It comes on the heels of close to 9,000 flooding into the newest EU member state since Wednesday morning.

“Croatia will not be able to receive any more people,” Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic told reporters in a Zagreb suburb on Thursday. Calling the country “completely full,” he added that “if you want to save your life, please go to reception centers in Serbia, or Macedonia or Greece.”

Ostojic’s announcement came as European Council President Donald Tusk called for an emergency summit will be held next Wednesday to discuss the worsening migration crisis.

Migrants and asylum-seekers fled to Croatia on Tuesday and Wednesday after Hungarian authorities sealed the border between Hungary and Serbia. That blocked the easiest route to Germany, where many hope to to apply for asylum.

The United Nations sharply criticized Hungary for its aggressive response to migrants who broke through border fences Wednesday. The U.N.’s top human rights official said Hungary’s use of tear gas and water cannons, as well as their decision to arrest refugees, “amount to clear violations of international law.”

But as Croatia has grown increasingly alarmed at the number of people crossing in from Serbia, Zagreb also has upped police in border towns. Additionally, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović reportedly asked the army to prepare to defend Croatia from the “illegal migration.”

Many passing through Croatia would prefer to move onward to Slovenia and then Germany. But even Berlin, which has offered to accept the most number of migrants across the EU, seems to have overestimated its ability to efficiently accommodate everyone as hoped.

On Thursday, citing “personal reasons,” German Migration Minister Manfred Schmidt resigned under pressure from representatives of all 16 German federal states, which accused him of grossly underestimating the number of expected migrants and, in turn, failing to provide appropriate resources for their arrival. The German migration office reportedly has a backlog of more than 250,000 asylum applications, some filed as far back as a year ago, and expects to receive 1 million more this year.

At the beginning of this year, Germany’s migration office had 300 staff. Today it has 600, and an estimated 400 additional staff members are expected to be hired to help handle the influx of applications.