Bosnia Data Contradicts Croatian Claim about Migrant, Refugee ‘Readmissions’

According to the Service's figures, 3,433 people have been 'readmitted' since 2017, the year that migrants and refugees mainly from the Middle East, Asia and Africa began crossing Bosnia in any great numbers. That does not include the thousands returned illegally, so-called 'pushbacks' across the border that fly in the face of the internationally-guaranteed right to seek asylum.

"The Readmission Agreement with Croatia was signed in 2011 and has been in effect since that date," the security ministry told BIRN, but since the beginning of this year, "there has been an increase in Croatia's requests for the acceptance of migrants who illegally cross from Bosnia and Herzegovina into Croatia." 

EU intervention

European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi and Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Borjana Kristo at the High-Level Political Forum in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 17 May 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

In the first three months of this year alone, according to the Bosnian data, Croatia sent back 1,068 migrants and refugees on the basis of the agreement. Between January 1 and April 19, Bosnian authorities refused to take a further 1,950, arguing that Croatia had failed to prove they entered from Bosnia.

Croatian authorities, however, say the rise in returns is simply due to the fact that Bosnia finally began implementing the readmissions agreement, after some prodding from the European Union.

"Namely, after six years Bosnia and Herzegovina began implementing the agreement that the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina concluded, and which regulates the acceptance and return of individuals who illegally crossed the joint border," the Croatian...