Madina Hussiny, a six-year-old Afghan girl, CROATIA was killed by a train. In December, the High Misdemeanour Court in Zagreb confirmed a Republic of Croatia lower court decision finding an Are You Head of state: Zoran Milanović Syrious volunteer – who had helped the Head of government: Andrej Plenković Afghan family to seek asylum – guilty of “assisting migrants in illegal crossing of the Asylum seekers were denied access to border” and ordered him to pay a fine of asylum; the police pushed back and abused 60,000 HRK (around €8,000) plus court people entering irregularly. The legal fees. framework on gender-based violence was Courts in Italy and Austria also found that further improved, but cases continued to the chain expulsions of asylum seekers from rise. Access to abortion remained severely those countries to Slovenia and further on to constrained. Same-sex couples were Croatia based on bilateral agreements were in granted the right to adopt children. breach of international law and subjected the Defamation lawsuits threatened the work of victims to degrading treatment at the hands journalists and the media. of the Croatian police. In June, the authorities established a REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS monitoring mechanism to investigate reports Croatia continued to deny access to asylum of human rights violations on Croatia’s to thousands of potential asylum seekers. Aid borders. However, human rights organizations documented around 10,000 organizations warned that the body lacked cases of pushbacks and collective independence and a robust mandate to expulsions, and numerous instances of effectively address the violations.1 violence and abuse. In February, the Danish In October, a group of European media Refugee Council reported that two women outlets published an investigative report were sexually abused, forced to strip naked, showing footage of Croatian special police held at gunpoint and threatened with rape by beating unarmed asylum seekers before Croatian police officers. The Ministry of the pushing them back into Bosnia and 2 Interior denied the reports. Herzegovina. The report prompted an The Council of Europe Human Rights internal investigation that resulted in the Commissioner said that the consistent suspension of the police officers involved. allegations pointed to an established practice The authorities considered it an isolated of collective expulsions and ill-treatment of incident, but NGOs maintained that violent migrants and a lack of prompt investigations. pushbacks from the country’s borders are In July, the UN Special Rapporteur on the widespread and systemic. human rights of migrants also acknowledged In December, the Council of Europe’s reports of widespread pushbacks from Committee for the Prevention of Torture said Croatian territory along with reports of theft, that it found numerous credible reports of destruction of property, physical abuse and serious ill-treatment of migrants and asylum assault. seekers by Croatian police during their earlier 3 In April, the Constitutional Court found that visit to the border. Croatia violated an Afghan family’s right to Recognition rates of asylum seekers asylum by forcibly returning them to Serbia in remained low, with only 42 people granted 2018 without adequately assessing the risks international protection by the end of the of such a return. In November, the European year. Court of Human Rights ruled that Croatia VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS violated the European Convention on Human Rights when the same family was pushed There were notable improvements in back to Serbia in 2017. On that occasion strengthening the fight against gender-based Amnesty International Report 2021/22 139