Prime Minister: The government insists on protecting the border "with our capabilities"

Zagreb - Right-wing opposition parties on Wednesday criticised Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's policy on illegal migration after he presented reports on European Council meetings held between April and October.

Right-wing opposition parties on Wednesday criticised Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's policy on illegal migration after he presented reports on European Council meetings held between April and October.

Plenković said the meetings focused on the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, illegal migration, EU enlargement, and the multiannual financial framework.

"One of the EU's biggest problems is illegal migration. The Christian Europe is... falling under the charge of illegal migrants," said Marijan Pavliček (Sovereignists). "Without the army on critical points, without fences with both Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, we won't solve or reduce this problem."

Nino Raspudić (Bridge) said there were 60,440 asylum seekers this year to date, five times more than last year.

Hungary, on the other hand, which has many illegal entries, had only 45 asylum seekers in 2022 because it allows applying for asylum only in the Hungarian embassies in Kyiv and Belgrade, he said. Croatia, he added, "will pay for decades for what is going on."

Stephen Bartulica (Homeland Movement) said "the EU can't be the space for solving all the world's problems" and that "re-examining the asylum policy should have begun long ago... It's evident that many people from different parts of the world are consciously abusing this institute."

The government insists on protecting the border "with our capabilities," said Plenković, adding that it is key to solve the issue of illegal migration at the source. "The more wars, instabilities, failed states, climate change and non-functioning states there are, the more intense migration routes we will have, unfortunately."

Croatia's problem with migration would be much smaller "if BiH were an efficient state in the full sense of the term," said Domagoj Hajduković (Social Democrats).