Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday published a report headlined "Croatia cracks down on migrants as Europe beefs up border checks" in which this French international news agency comments on reintroduction of border checks "amid a surge in illegal migration across the region."

AFP recalls that “it took Croatia years to finally enter into Europe's passport-free travel zone that promised to ease access for other European nationals travelling to the country and boost its tourism-driven economy.”

Croatia joined the Schengen Area on 1 January 2023, “when border crossings with European Union peers were dismantled”.

However, being faced with an influx of illegal migrants, Slovenia “re-introduced checks along its borders last month, following similar moves by Italy and other EU countries.”

AFP quotes the mayor of Krnjak, a Croatian municipality near the border with Bosnia, as saying that “people ask themselves what kind of fence could stop these people who passed so many frontiers and countries,”

Krnjak has been a hot-spot for crossings for some time. Mayor Perica Matijevic, who referred to a registration camp for incoming migrants that is being prepared in the area, “is not alone in his weariness.”

“Locals in the scarcely populated area complain that groups of migrants — almost all of whom are young men — moving through the area have only increased anxieties,” the agency reports.

“One should feel safe in his own house but migrants pass through our yards … there were thefts, it's not pleasant,” said a local student from the village of Dugi Dol, close to where the camp will open.

Croatia magnet for illegal migrants hoping to enter EU

Croatia, which guards one of EU's longest external land borders, has long been a magnet for illegal migrants hoping to enter the bloc.

“Over the years, the country gained an infamous reputation for fiercely patrolling its borders, leading to accusations that its authorities used violence to push back EU-bound refugees” AFP writes.

In 2021, major European media outlets made reports on “uncovered alleged systematic targeting of refugees by special units in Croatia, Greece and Romania.”

AFP on Friday commented that “migrants said little has changed.”

This news agency quoted two Afghani migrants as saying that they were treated “like animals” by Croatia's law enforcement authorities.

Atefa, a 29-year-old Afghan refugee who did not provide her surname for security reasons, told AFP that “Croatian police treated her and eight fellow migrants ‘like animals’.”

Along with forcing them to collect garbage and pouring water in their shoes, officers groped women and made obscene noises, she told AFP in a camp in Bihac, northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A 21-year-old man, Raz Mohammad Saifi had the years-long sojourn from his native Afghanistan to the Croatian border which AFP described “an arduous and sometimes violent journey that has seen him travel overland from Turkey to Bosnia”. After entering Croatia, Saifi said he was assaulted by police.

Travellers and locals say temporary checks necessary

The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan along with a massive earthquake in Turkey and Syria in February and renewed unrest in the Middle East has left many fearing that the surge in illegal migration will continue.

At the Bregana-Obrezje crossing, one of Croatia's 73 former land border posts with other EU countries, travellers and residents said that the temporary checks were necessary.

Last year, nearly half of the more than 300,000 EU-bound migrants used the so-called Balkans route, the highest number since the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, according to the bloc's border surveillance agency Frontex.

During the first 10 months this year nearly 100,000 migrants relied on the route with almost 63,000 — notably Afghans, followed by Turks, Moroccans and Pakistanis — crossing illegally into Croatia, official figures show.

The number represents a 73 percent jump compared with the same period last year.

This year a total of 2,559 persons reported violent pushbacks to Bosnia from Croatia, mirroring figures from 2022, according to the Danish Refugee Council.

Rights groups warn violence against refugees will likely increase

But rights groups warn that violence against refugees will likely increase as security is beefed up across Croatia's borders.

“When the police caught us, they stripped and searched us, took our mobile phones, money, shoes,” Saifi told AFP, saying police also sicced dogs on him and others before forcing the group to cross a river back into Bosnia.

Residents from the border village of Trzac gave Saifi and four others clothes and shoes before an aid group organised the men's transport to a nearby camp.