PM Milanovic: No refugee reception centre planned in Dubrovnik area

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic on Monday claimed that there would not be any refugee reception centre in the Dubrovnik area. 

Prime minister said that  that the rumours that migrants would start pouring in near that southern Croatian coastal town were a "hoax planted by those spreading panic in Croatia," and appealed to the UNHCR not to direct refugees along that route as that would be harrowing for refugees who would have to cross several borders and mountainous regions.

"The story that migrants would enter Croatia near Dubrovnik is a hoax planted by those spreading panic in Croatia and who are doing so deliberately and we can see who these people are and that they are doing it ahead of the elections and they would like something like that to happen," Milanovic told a press conference on Monday at the opening of a BIOCentre at the Zagreb Borongaj campus.

The UNHCR, he said, "is directing these people (refugees)," he said, appealing to the UNHCR not to do so. "In that case that would be harrowing for those people and they would have to cross several borders and mountains," Milanovic said, underscoring that Croatia had the right to say -- our borders are open, but where we say so and that is in the north. He added that the UNHCR was directing refugees for noble reasons and perhaps they are not aware that this is a much longer and poorer route.

After reporters claimed that work was under way to prepare a reception centre near Dubrovnik, Milanovic said that there is no such centre and there will not be. "I guarantee that that won't happen because, above all, that would be playing around with these people," he said. "Croatia has the right to shut its borders because the door is open to refugees in the north, he added.

The prime minister said that the solution to this problem lay in Greece which, he claimed, "is doing absolutely nothing." "It (Greece) is in the Schengen area and it is not doing anything," he said.  He added that the border crossing between Serbia and Hungary at Horgos in Hungary was still not open and that authorities in Serbia were not telling the truth and were not adhering to the agreement.

"As far as Serbia is concerned... the authorities are not telling the truth, they are not adhering to agreement. They can't say 'leave Croatia or Serbia alone.' What would it be like if we were to tell Hungary or Austria - 'leave Croatia alone'", he said in response to comments by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic that "Croatia should leave Serbia alone."

Asked by reporters to comment a statement from the Office of Serbia's President Tomislav Nikolic who met with President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in New York that the two countries agree that Croatia was at fault for the poor relations between the two countries, Milanovic said that the President should comment on this and not him.

He also said he did not believe the press release issued by Nikolic's office.

Milanovic said he was discussing the refugee problem with Austria, Slovenia and Germany. "I'm learning from Austria, which has been affected a great deal with the refugee crisis and Germany which is much larger. I hope I won't be misunderstood but perhaps it is good that Germany has been affected because that will ensure that the problem will be resolved sooner," he said.

Text and photo: Hina 
 

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