ZAGREB, 27 Oct (Hina) – Croatia has set five strategic goals to manage migration by 2030, focusing on preventing illegal crossings, building an effective asylum system, promoting legal arrivals, integrating people with international protection, and strengthening cooperation with non-EU countries.
The plan, adopted by the government, underscores Croatia’s role as one of the EU’s main entry points for refugees and migrants along smuggling routes that generate up to €6 billion a year for criminal networks and cost thousands of lives.
The Migration and Asylum Management Plan 2030 aims to build a resilient, humane and efficient system that safeguards national security and human rights. It highlights people smuggling as a complex social and security problem, calling for stronger border control by EU frontier states.
Criminal groups are estimated to earn between €4.7 and €6 billion annually, with smuggling causing more than 28,000 migrant deaths since 2016. Frontex recorded 239,000 irregular entries into the EU in 2024, down 38% from 2023, including 21,520 via the Western Balkan route, a 78% drop year-on-year.
Croatia has boosted border surveillance with extra personnel and technology, focusing on data-sharing within the EU and with third countries to counter potential links between smugglers, organised crime and terrorism.
Cooperation with Europol has yielded notable results, with Croatia helping launch the Operational Task Force ZeBRa to target smuggling on the Western Balkan route, alongside Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Romania, the UK and France.
In 2024, Croatia reported 1,664 offences of illegal entry and movement, up 11% from the previous year, though illegal crossings fell 58% to 29,294. The number of illegal border crossings into Croatia peaked in 2023, when 69,726 people entered the country unlawfully, a 37.7% increase from 2022. The downward trend has continued this year, with 4,761 illegal crossings recorded in the first five months. The decline is attributed to intensified policing along borders with BiH and Serbia and expanded use of detection technology.
Migrants most often enter on foot or by boat across the Sava River, guided by navigation apps, with the central Bosnian border seen as the main pressure point. A special task force now oversees investigations in high-risk areas.
Current cooperation in combating migrant smuggling involves a range of international and regional efforts, including the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling.
The plan calls for tighter EU coordination, fuller use of Frontex and Europol resources, and greater involvement of neighbouring non-EU states in regional initiatives to improve understanding of migration routes and strengthen collective response.
