{"id":12047,"date":"2022-08-08T09:35:54","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T16:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=12047"},"modified":"2022-08-08T09:35:55","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T16:35:55","slug":"illegal-returns-at-the-southern-border-of-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/illegal-returns-at-the-southern-border-of-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"As migrant flows increase, illegal returns continue along the EU's southern border"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"EU<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Katarina Machmer. Ethnic Media Services<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor's note: War, famine and climate change are once again causing a surge in migrants seeking entry into the European Union, which is legally required to assess asylum cases before expulsion. In EU member nation Croatia, however, an ongoing policy of illegal and sometimes violent pushbacks has human rights groups sounding the alarm.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZAGREB, Croatia \u2013 One of the European Union\u2019s longest borders stretches across hundreds of miles of deep forest separating EU member nation Croatia on one side and Bosnia and Herzegovina on the other. For any EU citizen, the scenery is breathtaking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for migrants and refugees trying to enter the EU, \u201cthe jungle\u201d, as many call it, can be both a blessing and a curse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hide in the forest on the way to the border, but there are many difficulties along the way, such as snakes and the danger of getting lost in the dark of night,\u201d says Amar \u2013 not his real name \u2013 who is originally from India. Unexploded ordnance and landmines, remnants of the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, add to the risks faced by migrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irregular migration into the EU \u2013 refugees and migrants entering the bloc without documentation \u2013 is rising sharply, approaching numbers not seen since 2016, when estimates reached 1.6 million, according to the EU\u2019s border agency Frontex. War, famine and climate change are among the drivers of this latest surge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most arrive along the so-called \u201cBalkan route,\u201d which runs northwest from Turkey, through Greece and into the Balkan nations that form the southern border of the 27-member EU. In 2015, the route became a key artery for migrants from the Middle East and Africa. But after Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia closed their borders, Bosnia and Herzegovina emerged as the region\u2019s most important transit country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Balkan Route is a key artery for migrants from the Middle East and North Africa seeking to enter the European Union.Image credit<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some 87,000 migrants have arrived in the country since 2018. The increase comes as renewed tensions stemming from the 1992 Bosnian War are beginning to resurface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTen times in a row.\u201d That\u2019s how many times Amar has tried to cross, and each time, \u201cthe police caught me,\u201d he says. Another migrant, from Iran, says he has made more than 200 attempts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amar lives in Camp Lipa, a Temporary Reception Centre (TRC), or migrant camp, in the northwestern corner of Bosnia and Herzegovina that opened last year after the country came under fire for its treatment of migrants. The camp is a few days\u2019 walk from the Croatian border, along rugged terrain that, while closely monitored, also provides opportunities for migrants to fly under the radar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, reports show that Croatia, along with neighbouring Greece and Romania, has carried out hundreds of illegal pushback operations, forcing migrants like Amar back across the border. In one documented case from 2020, Croatian authorities forcibly expelled more than 2,000 migrants in a span of 19 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The operations have raised alarm bells among human rights groups who say the EU is complicit. EU and international law requires member countries to first assess an asylum seeker's case, including irregular border crossings, before expelling them, a principle known as non-refoulement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Croatian journalist Yasmin Klari\u0107 has covered the pushback operations and says they are part of Croatia's efforts to become part of the Schengen Area, made up of 26 EU countries that have abolished virtually all border controls. Croatia's entry into the zone would allow its citizens to travel freely across EU member countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Data shows that EU member nation Croatia accounts for an overwhelming majority of illegal returns of migrants, with nearly half of migrants returned to Bosnia.Source<\/a>) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Klari\u0107 believes that pushback operations are becoming increasingly normalised and that the EU has no interest in ending them. On the contrary. \u201cIf the EU brings Croatia into Schengen, it will not do so despite the fact that the country is hitting migrants and refugees, but because it is doing so,\u201d says Klari\u0107, pointing to a general shift in EU policy towards deterrence along its borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That shift can be seen in the support given by the European Commission, the EU\u2019s executive arm, to Croatian border police, as well as in the statements of leaders including Ognian Zlatev, who represents the European Commission in Croatia. \u201cIf people try to cross the border irregularly,\u201d he says flatly, \u201cthis is a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, with a global food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and simmering conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, the flow of migrants continues, fuelling an ongoing humanitarian crisis along the EU's southern border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe border police did that,\u201d says one Camp Lipa resident, pointing to an injured arm. \u201cYou journalists come and report to us all the time, but nothing changes,\u201d complains another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Fences surround Camp Lipa, a migrant camp in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina. (Image: Charlotte Gro\u00df-Hohnacker)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Arnela \u010cau\u015devi\u0107 works at a TRC in the village of U\u015divak, near Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. She says that despite the obstacles to entering the EU, few migrants opt for asylum in her country. \u201cI only know two or three who tried to apply for asylum in Bosnia. The others continue to cross the border, even if they need 100 times to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U\u015divak camp is home to mostly families, housed in containers built on ground parched by the summer heat. One family from Pakistan is already preparing to cross the border just days after their arrival following a 15-day trek from Serbia with little food or water and a sick daughter in tow. Their goal is to reach Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another family that fled Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power there is also preparing to try their luck at the border. "If we don't manage to cross," says the father, "we'll try again."<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katarina Machmer is a Munich-based journalist covering migration and politics.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may be interested in: Heat, the main threat to agricultural workers: Stanford specialists<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Katarina Machmer. Ethnic Media Services. Nota del editor: La guerra, la hambruna y el cambio clim\u00e1tico est\u00e1n provocando una vez m\u00e1s un aumento de inmigrantes que buscan ingresar a la Uni\u00f3n Europea, que legalmente est\u00e1 obligada a evaluar los casos de asilo antes de su expulsi\u00f3n. Sin embargo, en la naci\u00f3n miembro de la […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cover","8":"category-usworld"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12052,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12047\/revisions\/12052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}