Do migrants in Croatia receive 20,000 euros, or $21,705, which is four times more than an average pensioner gets annually? No, that's not true: Minister of Internal Affairs Davor Božinović rejected the claims made by parliamentarians that Croatia should pay someone 20,000 euros for each migrant.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok on January 6, 2024. It began (translated from Croatian to English by Lead Stories staff):
Dear colleagues, two weeks ago at the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia there was a shooting by migrants and people smugglers towards the Croatian police. The so-called humanitarian organizations did not say a word, and if by any chance it had been the other way around, if the Croatian police had shot at the migrants, these organizations would have been attacking the Croatian police here for several months. So, the police who are doing their job legally are not allowed to use weapons, while those who are doing their job illegally are allowed to. We can really ask ourselves who is crazy here? All of you who encourage illegal and uncontrolled migration, take them home to yourselves. Do not force us to accept them or to give 20,000 euros for each migrant. You know, a person in Croatia who worked for 40 years and paid taxes, has an average pension of less than 500 euros. That means around 5,000 euros per year. And now you want us to give each migrant four times more, 20,000 euros? Be serious! We need a complete change of this policy!
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Vrisak on TikTok
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Jan 11 09:01:01 2024 UTC)
The claim was made by Ladislav Ilčić, a member of the European Parliament (archived here) and president of the Hrast party - Movement for a successful Croatia, which brings together political parties, civil associations and individuals with a traditional, conservative, national and Christian Democratic orientation.
On November 11, 2023, Božinović rejected his claim (archived here) that Croatia has to pay 20,000 euros for each migrant.
That situation does not exist. On the contrary, someone would have to pay Croatia if it does not want to accept migrants, but that is a far-fetched story.
According to the Law on International and Subsidiary Protection (archived here), the applicant has the right to stay, freedom of movement in the Republic of Croatia, assurance of appropriate material conditions of acceptance, health care, primary and secondary education, information, legal advice and free legal aid, freedom of religion and work. The material conditions of acceptance are accommodation in the Reception Center, food and clothing, reimbursement of public transportation costs for the purposes of the international protection approval procedure and financial assistance. The manner and conditions of the procedure for achieving the material conditions of acceptance are determined by the Ministry, and the right to financial assistance is decided by the Reception Center. The amount of financial aid is determined by the minister by signing a decision.
The Report on the state of illegal migration from the entry of Croatia into the Schengen area (archived here), shows that around 62,500 illegal border crossings were recorded from January to October 2023, which is 73 percent more than last year. However, there has been a decrease in the number of illegal crossings in the last four months. The number of asylum seekers has increased five times in comparison to 2022. Božinović points out (archived here) that out of the total 60,440 asylum seekers, only 1,400 actually applied for asylum, and the vast majority of these people left Croatia in the meantime:
'So, 97 percent of them do not stay in Croatia'
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about migrants in Croatia can be found here.
