ZAGREB, 15 Jan (Hina) – Croatia currently has 101,300 foreign workers and fewer than 650 illegal migrants in the country, Interior Minister Davor Božinović said during Question Time in Parliament on Thursday.

He dismissed claims that Croatia would need up to 500,000 foreign workers this year, saying lower media coverage of illegal crossings did not mean less police work. Police are deployed around the clock on Croatia’s external borders, he said.

Božinović  said illegal border crossings fell by 44% last year, reinforcing Croatia’s reputation as one of the safest countries.

He added that amendments to the Aliens Act would be sent to the government by the end of the month, tightening some criteria and introducing Croatian language skills as a condition for access to the labour market.

FM hopes for resolution of property disputes affecting 51 families in Montenegro

Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said he hoped a positive solution would be found for 51 Croatian families in Tivat, Montenegro whose property was seized or subject to disputed registration over past decades.

He said Montenegrin Foreign Minister Ervin Ibrahimović had promised a favourable outcome. He said the Croatian government was treating the issue seriously on legal, political and values-based grounds as the Croatian minority in Boka is small and vulnerable.

Grlić Radman said he had met this week with families from Tivat unable to register their property in the Mrčevac cadastral area because authorities were ignoring court rulings in Kotor and Podgorica.

He said the issue concerned the rule of law and noted that, as an EU accession candidate, Montenegro was obliged to resolve restitution benchmarks linked to the rule-of-law chapter. Grlić Radman added that allowing registration for other nationalities while denying it to Croats amounted to discrimination against the Croatian community.