Pusić: "Croatian society at a higher level of openness and freedom"

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Zagreb, 21st January - "In a situation of harmonization with the European Union we are asked and our goals are higher level of protection of human rights and democratic standards but at the same time, stricter migration policy and control of the asylum seekers. Simultaneously we are in a position of guaranteeing higher standards of human rights and stricter controls and criteria for immigrants and asylum within the Croatia", said Vice President of CPP, first Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić at the CPP's Political Academy roundtable on "Immigration policy".

 

"As far as Croatia, our interest is to have more people, given that we are sparsely populated, assuming a successful economy. Our interests and security are stability, not introducing conflicts and threats to the country, under the assumption that we are capable of successfully integrating people who come to Croatia into our society", said Pusić, adding that integration involves more than just formal rights, respectively education, health insurance, housing policy and flexibilisation and open society.

 

Migration policy was one of the conditions that we have delivered to the EU, reminded Vesna Pusić, that covers seven main areas: visa status of foreign and Croatian citizenship, asylum, integration policies, irregular migration and emigration from the Croatia.

"To harmonize laws, match statistics and establish institutions is not easy, but it's the easier part of the work. The demanding part of the job is the extent to which Croatian society is ready and able to live in this changed situation and use it as a positive opportunity to open and have nicer life for all, and not as a threat to close and become discriminatory, less freely and negative" said Pusić.

Because the old rule says, reminded Vice President of CPP, the most vulnerable groups are the best measure of the quality of human and civil rights in one country. Pusić has concluded that today's discussion is a small contribution to what it means to take advantage of this new situation for "Croatian society at a higher level of openness and freedom instead of Croatian society in the retracted snail shell".

About the current state of the Croatian labor market and employment of foreigners has spoken an expert on labor market Sanja Crnković - Pozaić, who said that Croatia must consciously and permanently initiate immigration for those knowledge and skills that will help in our development.

She has also mentioned and specific areas where there could be a labor shortage, because there are not enough young people who could replace those who are going to retire. Among them are the agriculture and food industry, geology, petroleum, chemistry, textile and leather, construction, transport and logistics.

Replacements, said Crnković - Pozaić, could be sought among the unemployed and inactive, but there is a problem of the age of these people, but also the level of education, because, as she said, most of these people are not ready for further education.

"Croatia does not have enough resources and capacity to solve such a problem in the short term. We are limited by the fact that we do not know the future needs of the labor market and immigration policy because we are not able to define and can only speak in general", said Sanja Crnković - Pozaić.

"An effective immigration policy should be based on the analysis of the future needs of the labor market, forecasts of demand for skills across sectors and industries, focus on medium-term imbalances between supply and demand and target selection qualifications and occupations that could dynamize the labor market. It is necessary to raise the scientific research to a higher level, to accelerate education reform and strengthen the capacity to develop new technologies", concluded Crnković - Pozaić.

 

Siniša Rodin from Law Faculty of University in Zagreb, spoke on the topic of asylum, return and extradition. Talking about the problem of immigration, Rodin stated that there are numerous standards that Croatia needs to adopt, so-called directive on the return and extradition to third countries. It is needed to reduce xenophobia and emphasize the benefits of immigration, as well as intellectual shift.

 

"It is necessary to stop thinking about immigration solely as a problem. There is a clash between local and national interests against the European interests, about which among other are talking European convention on the protection of the rights of asylum seekers, and the Geneva Conventions. Directive must be adopted and implemented in the Croatian legislation. Through the aforementioned European directive the possibility of exercising the right in any Member State of the EU is created", said Rodin.

Basic obligations of the directive are substantive and procedural rights that state must respect. This is the aforementioned example that EU member state should not extradited to a third country an asylum seeker if he is threatened by inhuman treatment or even loss of life in that country. Many EU countries at issue of immigration and asylum have a problem with a legal question. Specifically, there are institutions that regulate asylum and those that regulate extradition. Given that there is a communication problem between two branches of jurisdiction, the whole situation about extradition becomes complicated", continued Rodin.

Speaking about the practice of the courts Rodin noted that the practice of the Croatian courts has selective sequences. For example, if a person has had a public speech in some country, and for that speech is doomed, and there is the possibility of "beating" in prison, the Republic of Croatia may not extradite him to a third country. Croatian courts, unfortunately focus on some other things - citizenship or similar patterns. Asylum may be an obstacle to the extradition, and that can not be seen in Croatia.

"Extradition has an advantage over asylum, although it should not be that way. But it should be substantially analyzed. A tremendous effort was spent in Croatian institutions to edit immigration and asylum policy, however, the work has not yet been completed", concluded Siniša Rodin.

Goranka Lalić Novak spoke of the right of asylum in practice, respectively on the methods to restrict access to asylum system.

She stressed the access to physical territory, as Croatia does not allow asylum in embassies or consulates, then non-refoulement to a country where asylum seekers are at risk on account of whom are seeking asylum, bans punishment for their illegal entry or residence, access to the procedure for determining refugee status - acceptance of Intent , avoiding the limitation of freedom of movement of asylum-seekers, and respect for fundamental human rights and human dignity.

She also mentioned the methods of restricting access to asylum system, referring to visa policies, carrier sanctions, agreements on the return, interception on land and sea, and rejection of, or failure to recognize the intent to seek asylum.

"Access to the procedure for determining refugee status depends on identifying of the police officer that the person is seeking asylum. It is a police officer at the time the key person for not accepting or not recognizing intention for asylum", said Lalić Novak.

"If we wish well for ourselves, greater well-being and faster social development, we need to create the conditions under which foreigners will want to come to us. We must give them good opportunities to act and allow them to feel comfortable here. This means that we, along with social and housing policy, actively seek to create a multicultural atmosphere and active assimilation. That would make us economically and culturally richer. If we are not able to do or not want to do so, then we block ourselves social development", concluded the head of 5th Department of CPP's Political Academy (Department of Public) and political analyst Davor Gjenero, who opened and moderated roundtable of Political Academy.

In the discussion following the presentations of the speakers of the round table participated Emina Bužinkić from the Center for Peace Studies, Zoran Pusić, president of the Civic Committee for Human Rights, Jasna Barberić, Senior Legal Counsel of the Department of asylum, migration and statelessness at UNHCR, Drago Župarić from the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Sunčanica Skupnjak Kapić and Davorko Vidović from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce and Tena Šimonović Einwalter from the Office of the Ombudsman.

 

All present welcomed the initiative of the CPP's Political Academy and presentations at the roundtable.