Lejla Juranic, head of the civil society group "Are You Syrious?" (AYS), recalled in a letter to the ministry the legal obligations of the country and its police as defined by international and national regulations, which include the right of refugees to seek international protection and be informed adequately of that right in the presence of an interpreter.
Any other conduct would be in violation of international treaties ratified by Croatia and national laws, the group says, calling on the Ministry of the Interior to make it possible for its volunteers and civil society groups to access the illegal migrants to make sure they exercised their rights in a transparent way.
The formal closing of borders has not closed the Balkans migration route but has pushed victims of war, poverty and political persecution into the hands of smugglers who pass through our country, Juranic says in the letter.
The Centre for Peace Studies (CMS) has asked the police to inform the public of the locations where the illegal migrants will be accommodated.
Returning those people to Serbia is not a humane response because the accommodation capacity in that country has been exhausted and it would mean returning people who were hospitalised in Croatia into the street and out in the cold, CMS said.
The event at Novska clearly shows that the EU's policy of closed borders is not functioning and that migration cannot be stopped, CMS said, adding that the fight against smugglers as announced by the EU would begin once member-countries secured a safe passage to the EU and humanitarian evacuations from war zones.
Sixty-seven illegal migrants were found on Saturday evening in a lorry on the motorway near the eastern town of Novska, 90 kilometres east of Zagreb. Forty-two were hospitalised due to carbon monoxide poisoning, hypothermia and dehydration and their famished and generally poor physical state.
The migrants were mostly men aged 15-20 and there were also two children aged 10-12.
Two Bulgarian nationals were arrested in connection with this case on the suspicion of people smuggling.