HRW confirms Komšić's claims about transferring migrants from Croatia to BiH

SARAJEVO, (Patria) – Director of the non-governmental human rights organization Human Rights Watch for Europe and Central Asia (HRW) Hugh Williamson sent an open letter to the President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, due to the expulsion of migrants to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"On behalf of Human Rights Watch, I want to ask you to order an investigation into illegal expulsions of migrants by Croatian border police, and to cease such practices. In an interview for Swiss TV SRF on July 9, you admitted that Croatian border police illegally expel migrants to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that in some cases they use force. This is contrary to previous denials by Croatian officials, but in line with the findings of Human Rights Watch, the UN Refugee Agency, and other organizations," Williamson's letter states.

HRW stated in its December 2018 report alarming problems in the procedures of Croatian border police and their expulsion of asylum seekers and other migrants at the borders with BiH, and in many cases, as stated in the report, such expulsions involved violence, but the Croatian government rejected all accusations of pushbacks and the use of violence.

Responding, at the beginning of last month, to a question from the news agency Patria, member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Željko Komšić stated that the President of Croatia is twisting the narrative when it comes to the migrant crisis in the region, and that Croatia is creating problems for Bosnia and Herzegovina, not Bosnia and Herzegovina for Croatia.

Komšić said that "there are cases where Croatian police have returned even those migrants to Bosnia and Herzegovina for whom there is no evidence that they entered Croatian territory from Bosnia and Herzegovina."

"Also, HDZ BiH, as a sister party to HDZ from Croatia, has absolute influence over the Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And, instead of the Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina maximally protecting the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, from where migrants mostly enter our country, the BiH Border Police spends energy protecting the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Because of this, we have a situation where migrants enter Bosnia and Herzegovina relatively easily, but cannot leave the country. The impression is created as if our neighbors are deliberately accumulating migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Komšić.

At the same time, Komšić then invited President Grabar-Kitarović to approach the migrant crisis problem together, as he said, in a serious, statesmanlike manner in order to, he conveyed, protect the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, as well as the migrants and refugees themselves.