In his speech at an award-giving ceremony for best law enforcement officers, held on the occasion of Police Day at the refugee reception centre in Opatovac on Tuesday, Milanovic said Croatia would remain open for the reception of refugees and it would not build fences at its borders.
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has said that Croatia is not in the Schengen area of passport-free travel, but that when it comes to providing and caring for refugees, it is behaving as if it were a part of that area.
Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday that the opposition HDZ party and its president Tomislav Karamarko were spreading panic for no reason and missed no opportunity to cause a conflict with the government.
Asked by reporters at the Opatovac refugee reception centre why Karamarko was prevented from moving around the southern Prevlaka peninsula today, Milanovic said he did not know what was going on there but that there were rules of behaviour and that neither he, as prime minister, could come to some places.
"I hope it's not another attempt to cause an incident or to provoke because we have seen in recent days and weeks that not a day goes by without an attempt (to cause) a conflict with the government," the PM said. He reiterated that refugees would not be cared for on Prevlaka and again accused Karamarko of spreading panic among Croatian citizens for no reason.
He reiterated that the refugee crisis must stop where it began, in Greece, the entry point to the Schengen Area. He recalled that Croatia had applied to join the area a few months ago but, "We won't enter such a Schengen. Such a Schengen is dangerous for Croatia."
"Greece is a member of Schengen. They are loading people onto ships and aren't guarding their border with Turkey, which used to be the most guarded border in the world. All of a sudden, this border has become a summer promenade," Milanovic said, reiterating that Croatia did not consider closing its borders to refugees because it would be too costly.
He said that unlike Croatia, its "neighbours are doing nothing" about the reception of and provision for refugees, and that those suffering the most, the Austrians and the Germans, were complaining the least. He said refugees would most probably stop coming with the arrival of winter.
Asked about a possible blockade of the Hungarian border, he said the fact that there had been no US ambassador in Budapest for a year said enough about the country's international reputation. "Budapest's policy is something completely unacceptable to me," he said, adding that Hungary could not close the border other than build a "wall" such as the "shameful wall towards Vojvodina."
He denied that Croatia had agreed a humanitarian corridor for refugees across Slovenia and Austria in case Hungary blocked the border.
(Text: Hina)
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