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[ 21. Sep 2015 ]

Report from Croatia, 17./18./19. September 2015

Following report by No Border Initiative Zagreb gives an short overview about the situation at Croatian borders to Serbia and Hungary and inside the country as well in the detention centers.

 

17. Sep 2015: people are let trough on croatian-serbien border. police tried to set people behind fences at the border to wait for the buses, people waited for very long times (14 h and more), bus transporting went very slow, people disobeyed the police, broke the fences and started moving.

With Buses and trains people got transferred to open camps and accommodations in: Vukovarsko - srijemska County (east), Osjecko - baranjska County (east), City of Zagreb, Sisacko - moslavacka County (close to Zagreb). From out those camps and accomodations and directly from the border people are an the move to the borders with hungary (in the east) and slovenia (in the north).

Croatian government says they can not afford the structure to keep people and they will let them transit through croatia towards west/north.

Since evening 18th, today (19th September) people in the east are transferred through Hungary to Austria. Media says croatia and hungary made a pact for that channel. (Not verified for how long and how that pact looks like.)


Zagreb:


17. Sep 2015: First people arrived in Zagreb around noon in the accommodation. First the doors where closed, people inside rebelled and police opened the doors. People moved to bus and train stations to go to slovenian border. All people arriving later with buses and cars moved immediately towards the bus/train stations or moved with taxis and cars. Supporting people were there, spreading maps, giving basic infos/timetables of transports.

18. Sep 2015: Some thousand people where brought back in the night and morning 17/18.9 from slovenian border to Zagreb.
People who where brought back started again moving during the day to the border. Friday (18th) night there were people on several border crossings waiting to enter Slovenia (Bregana/Obrezje and Harmica/Dubove). There was a lot of Slovenian Police who didn't let them enter.

19. Sep 2015: Camp in Zagreb, Porin is empty. Camp in Zagreb, Velesajam is not so full either. Buses bring people from there to the border. They are expecting new people. Trains from Tovarnik are coming towards Zagreb.


Slovenia, Cro-Slo Border:


18. Sep 2015: Around 100 people are in detention in Postojna, Slovenia. They are very scared of what will happen to them. Lot of people are moving around the border areas. People started to go towards and along the river (Sutla river) which marks the border of cro/slov there, up north.
There are only a little croatian police and they are very calm.
Slovenian side is more of a problem for the people.

19. Sep 2015: Buses started to pick up people at the borders and bring them to Slovenia. They bring them to different cities, mostly to Maribor and Celje. People are brought to open camps. A lot of people move already in Slovenia towards border with Austria. For now the border to austria is open, train from Celje and Vienna goes and small groups manage to enter Austria

For update from Slovenia look (slovenian and english language) facebook of 'Protirasisticna fronta brez meja' and https://twitter.com/BrezMeja


Bordercrossing Harmica/Dubove


18. Sep 2015: Migrants and supporters gathered friday at the border crossing at Harmica demanding free movement into the schengen era, into Slovenia. Croatian border opened between 19.00/20.00. Slovenian police blocked people and won't let them enter. People protested with banners, singing, holding speeches and shouting slogans. Police used tear-gas around
22.00. After this again calm. People are staying on the bridge between
the border points. Slovenian police changed shifts and put up fences.
Food, Water and Tents are there.

19. Sep 2015:
In the morning of the 19th people report that buses came and slowly start taking people. First they took families. After they took only women and children and separated the men from their families, but they are saying they will pick up everyone. Until now saturday (19. Sep - 17:40) only 3 buses came. People are still protesting.


Border crossing Bregana/Obrezje


In the morning 19. Sep 2015: buses came to Bregana and started slowly to take women and children. It seems that the buses are not leaving any more. On 18th September and during the night there was no infrastructure in Bregan: no water/food or any supplies, people waited long, police also didn't cooperate in emergency cases and rather ignored the life threatening conditions. As far as we heard a baby died there in the night from 18th to 19th. This is another death caused by borders and while police is watching.

Since the morning the situation in Bregana got better: Volunteers put up tents, there is water and food. It's crowded but situation is ok. Since around 17.00 no more buses leave from Bregana. First buses only took children and women.


Situation in East of Croatia, Cro-Ser Border:


We heare there are around 4.000 people on the serbian side of the border (not verified number).

It seems that all the smaller border crossings on Serbian- Croatian border are closed ( Ilok, Ilok2, Principovac, Principovac 2, Batina, Erdut). Bajakovo (boarder crossing by Tovarnik) seems to be the only open one.

At 3:50 pm (19. Sep 2015) the croatian police states: From 17. September on until 19. September 1.a.m. approximately 21.000 migrants entered Croatia. The largest arrival of migrants to Croatia is still through Tovarnik, where, at the moment, are around 2500 migrants.

Some People in the camps in the eastern regions of croatia (Tovarnik, Vukovar, Beli Manasti and so on) got transferred through hungary towards austria by train. We dont know how many people, but we heared that they are brought to different places in austria and that a lot of people are in Sankt Gotthard. The official statement of the police is saying that the transport to hungary is organized. We don't know how this really looks like and how many people they take and if they only take "vulnerable" people (as reported by the media).

There are constantly more people coming, also towards the camps in the east. There are still a lot of people in the camps. Information from there is that infrastructure is not working good. There is not enough of anything (food, water, sleeping places). Supplies are coming but distribution is stuck. Local community doesnt know how to handle the situation, they are missing on more people.


Situation in South of Croatia:


People come through Bosnia to Dubrovnik. We dont know more about this for now. We will try to get further information.

The Situation is changing constantly. Stay informed. We try our best to update reports.

Apart from monitoring, reporting and sharing information, presence at the border is needed to organize solidarity and to avoid or intervene in police violence.

Also if people have possibilities to go to the east of croatia, help is needed, monitoring is important.


Map of blocked borders between Croatia and Serbia, 19. Sep 2015

Article by No Border Initiative Zagreb from 19th September 2015.