Members of FRONTEX at a launch ceremony in Skopje, North Macedonia, April 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI.
Croatia’s Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Tuesday that his country advocates deploying the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, noting that more than 95 per cent of migrants using the so-called Western Balkan Route to enter Croatia come from that direction.
“Our goal, and the goal of the European Commission [in talks with Bosnia] was to resolve the status of Frontex there,” Bozinovic said, adding that Frontex is currently establishing some activities in the country, mainly along Bosnia’s eastern border.
“However, what interests us the most is the western border, where migrants mostly try to cross illegally into the territory of Croatia,” Bozinovic said. “That is one of the issues that I think we will discuss in the future,” he added.
Bozinovic said Frontex’s future mission was to strengthen the capacities of countries through which migrants travel to reach the European Union, and improve returns.
He said an organisation with such a large budget could play a much more effective role in returning migrants caught entering the EU irregularly to their countries of origin.
“Our three countries share a common goal of ensuring citizen safety, managing migration effectively, and further strengthening the [borderless] Schengen Area,” Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said, adding that cooperation had produced positive results, citing a 28-per-cent drop in irregular border crossings recorded in the first eight months of this year.
Bozinovic also noted a further decline in irregular migration along the Western Balkan route this year but warned that the route remained active and needed close monitoring.
“We will therefore continue with trilateral border patrols, as they have proven effective, particularly in the fight against migrant smugglers,” Bozinovic said.
He noted that 842 smugglers had been arrested this year and that prevention efforts had produced stronger results than in the previous period, with nearly 25 per cent more attempted entries into EU territory prevented than last year.
He was speaking at a meeting of the interior ministers of Italy, Croatia and Slovenia in Pordenone, Italy. The ministers confirmed their readiness to further improve cooperation through regular information sharing, joint operational activities and coordinated responses to security challenges.
“Today, there is no security challenge, especially for police forces, that does not have a cross-border dimension. The better we cooperate, the more successful we will be,” Slovenian Interior Minister Franci Matoz said.
