Category Archives: Croatia

Croatian police officers arrested over beating of Afghan asylum seeker

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Arrest follows series of complaints of abuse and torture by Croatian law enforcement against those crossing from Bosnia

Two Croatian police officers were arrested on Thursday over the beating of an asylum seeker, as the UN urged the country to immediately investigate reports of excessive use of force against migrants.

The police in Karlovac, 35 miles south-west of Zagreb, announced the two officers had been charged after an Afghan man who crossed the border from Bosnia was injured, 24sata, a leading daily newspaper in Croatia, reported.

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EU ‘covered up’ Croatia’s failure to protect migrants from border brutality

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Exclusive: Brussels officials feared disclosing Zagreb’s lack of commitment to monitoring would cause ‘scandal’

EU officials have been accused of an “outrageous cover-up” after withholding evidence of a failure by Croatia’s government to supervise police repeatedly accused of robbing, abusing and humiliating migrants at its borders.

Internal European commission emails seen by the Guardian reveal officials in Brussels had been fearful of a backlash when deciding against full disclosure of Croatia’s lack of commitment to a monitoring mechanism that ministers had previously agreed to fund with EU money.

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‘I raised hell’: how people worldwide answered the call of World Oceans Day

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From protecting fishing communities to regrowing coral reefs, Guardian readers and environmentalists share how they’re working to defend the ocean

World Oceans Day, which took place on Monday, is marked by hundreds of beach cleans and events globally. Despite Covid-19 restrictions, environmentalists and readers from around the world shared how they are continuing to work to protect the ocean, and told us about the local marine issues that matter to them.

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Crosses on our heads to ‘cure’ Covid-19: refugees report abuse by Croatian police

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Group of asylum seekers including minors say they were beaten and spray-painted near the border with Bosnia, as calls grow for EU to investigate

Details have emerged of more than 30 migrants allegedly robbed, beaten and spray-painted with red crosses on their heads by Croatian police officers who said the treatment was the “cure against coronavirus”.

The Guardian has interviewed asylum seekers, obtained photographs and collected dozens of testimonies, including from minors, revealing how the Croatian authorities were laughing and drinking beer while spray-painting migrants attempting to cross the border from Bosnia-Herzegovina, as EU parliamentarians have now begun pushing for an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the abuses.

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Croatian police accused of spray-painting heads of asylum seekers

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UN has asked the government to investigate latest allegations of abuse against migrants crossing on Balkan route from Bosnia

Croatian police are allegedly spray-painting the heads of asylum seekers with crosses when they attempt to cross the border from Bosnia.

The Guardian has obtained a number of photographs of what has been described by charities as the “latest humiliation’’ perpetrated by the Croatian authorities against migrants travelling along the Balkan route.

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Zagreb hit by earthquake while in coronavirus lockdown

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Croatian capital hit by its biggest quake in 140 years, according to PM, causing damage and injury

A strong earthquake has shaken the Croatian capital, Zagreb, bringing much of the population on to the streets after social distancing regulations to prevent the spread of coronavirus had been put in place.

The quake, which struck shortly after 6am local time on Sunday, caused widespread damage, including to the city’s cathedral, and the evacuation of hospitals. A 15-year-old was in a critical condition and 16 others were injured as a result of the quake, Croatian authorities said on Sunday afternoon.

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Croatia’s new president vows to make country a more tolerant place

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Zoran Milanović wins runoff against conservative incumbent after election trail marked by rightward shift

Croatia’s newly elected centre-left president has pledged to make the country a more tolerant place after denying a second term to the rightwing incumbent, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

Zoran Milanović won 52.7% of the vote in a second-round runoff against Grabar-Kitarović on Sunday, a few days after the country assumed the rotating presidency of the EU.

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Croatian president to face leftist former PM in second-round run-off

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Incumbent Kolinda Grabar Kitarović comes second to Zoran Milanović after losing votes to rightwing singer Miroslav Škoro

Croatia’s conservative president will face a liberal former prime minister in a runoff election in early January after no candidate won an outright majority in a first round of voting on Sunday, near-complete results showed.

The vote was held just days before Croatia takes over the European Union presidency for the first time. The governing conservatives are hoping to to keep their grip on power ahead of assuming the EU chairmanship.

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‘Blood on the ground’ at Croatia’s borders as brutal policing persists

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While heavy snow makes life unbearable for migrants, a dangerous nightly ‘game’ has led to alleged assault and injury

Photography by Alessio Mamo

In a room in the intensive therapy unit of a hospital in the port city of Rijeka, Croatia, Farouk fights for his life.

The 18-year-old Afghan has life-threatening injuries to his thorax and abdomen. On 16 November, in the woods around Tuhobić, a Croatian police officer shot Farouk – who, with dozens of other migrants, was attempting to cross the border with Slovenia.

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Croatians to vote on president after campaign dominated by hard right

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Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović aims to be re-elected but faces pressure from populist candidate

Croatia’s president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, will seek re-election on Sunday as the country gears up to assume the rotating presidency of the EU for the first time.

She is expected to have an easy ride, but her campaign has been complicated by the rise of a populist, anti-establishment folk musician, Miroslav Škoro, which has led her to move to the right to compete for votes.

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Croatia wrongly deports Nigerian table tennis players to Bosnia

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Organisers of competition students travelled to attend demand their return to Nigeria

The organisers of an international student sports competition have called for two Nigerian table tennis players to be returned to their own country after Croatian police wrongly deported them to a Bosnian refugee camp.

Abia Uchenna Alexandro and Eboh Kenneth Chinedu, students at the Federal University of Technology Owerri in Nigeria, arrived in Zagreb on 12 November, on their way to participate in the fifth World InterUniversities Championships, held this year in Pula, Croatia.

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Croatia music festival evacuated after fire breaks out – video

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Hundreds of people have been evacuated from a hip-hop festival on the Croatian island of Pag after a forest fire broke out nearby. Flames were seen billowing behind the site as attendees left the Fresh Island festival on Zrće beach on Monday night. The organisers said emergency services were working to contain the blaze and it was unclear whether the event would continue as planned on Tuesday

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Croatian police use violence to push back migrants, president admits

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Human Rights Watch calls on Croatia to end illegal practice of forcing people back over Bosnian border

After months of official denials, Croatia’s president has admitted that the country’s police are involved in the violent pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers apprehended inside the country.

The best chance for thousands of refugees stuck in Bosnia is to cross its border with Croatia to make it to the European Union. For the past year there has been repeated evidence of police using force against those who have made it across the border and then dumping them back in Bosnia.

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Charges filed in Croatia after death of Afghan migrant girl

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Delta Air Lines and other carriers that operate out of Atlanta's airport say they expect to be running normally by Tuesday, after a fire and blackout there. Their long-sought political goal within grasp, Republicans in Congress are set to catapult sweeping $1.5 trillion tax legislation through the House, rolling over a dozen GOP defectors from high-tax states.