There were eight men, four women and five children aboard the adjusted fishing boat up to 12 metres long.
The 'passengers' were taken to a police station in that southern Croatian city for the establishment of their identity, the local police reported.
The police could not yet establish from where they had arrived and where they were planning to go, given that the communication in the Arabic language was impossible until an interpreter would come.
According to unofficial information, the people from the boat are Palestinians.