Croatia is being demanded to strengthen the visa regime: what happened

Half of the migrants and asylum seekers arriving in Croatia come from countries that have visa-free agreements with Bosnia. Therefore, Zagreb demands that Sarajevo tighten its visa regime.

The common goal of Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy is to replace internal border controls with another mechanism of cooperation before the start of the tourist season. This was discussed during a meeting between Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović and his colleagues from Slovenia, Boštjan Poklukar, and Italy's Matteo Piantedosi, as reported by BalkanInsight.

Božinović emphasized a 17 percent decrease in the number of illegal migrants entering Croatia compared to last year, but almost 40 percent more entries were recorded in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this context, the minister highlighted that more than 50% of asylum seekers in Croatia are citizens of countries such as Turkey, Russia, and China, which have visa-free agreements with Bosnia or Serbia.

Exploiting this, migrants arrive in Bosnia on commercial flights as tourists and attempt to illegally enter Croatia to seek international protection. Croatia emphasizes that this problem needs to be addressed so that countries aspiring to join the European Union harmonize their visa policies with the EU.

In turn, the Slovenian STA news agency reported that the ministers of Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy called for the speedy establishment of trilateral mixed police patrols in the border area. Božinović expressed hope that the heads of the border police of the three countries would discuss this decision in the near future.

As a reminder, efforts to strengthen cooperation between the three countries to curb the flow of refugees from the so-called "Balkan route" began as soon as Georgia Meloni became Prime Minister of Italy in October 2022. Earlier, a similar trilateral meeting was held in Trieste, Italy, in November 2023, as a result of which Italian and Slovenian mixed police patrols monitored areas in Slovenia near the border with Italy.

Additionally, in 2020, Italy and Slovenia collaborated on the so-called "informal readmission," whereby Italian police apprehended migrants and refugees who illegally crossed the territory of Trieste, processed them under an expedited procedure, and then returned them to Slovenia. Slovenia would then send them back to Croatia until they eventually ended up in Bosnia. In January 2021, an Italian court declared this practice illegal. The Italian government attempted to resume it in January 2023, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

As a reminder, digital nomads are often looking for better options for immigration. TravelWise wrote about the most popular countries with inexpensive visas.