The EU requests Croatia to set up a completely independent appeals agency and efficient legal remedies in the asylum seeking process.
Therefore the Croatian government has moved changes in the make-up and models of work of the asylums commission,
Appeals, which will be forwarded to administrative courts as of the start of 2012, will postpone the enforcement of decisions on extradition and appeals time terms are extended to 15 days.
Foreigners with subsidiary protection status will be allowed to stay in Croatia three years, according to the proposed amendments. They will also have the right to be integrated into Croatian society with an enlarged scope of their rights to public heath care, education and work.
Asylum seekers will have the right to be provided with accommodation for two years, while now they are entitled to one-year accommodation.
Under the draft amendments, which the government proposed in a bid to meet the last benchmark for closing the policy chapter on "Justice, Freedom and Security" within Croatia's EU accession negotiations, free legal aid will be available to all asylum seekers who do not have their own funds.
The Council of the EU is to decide on the introduction and cessation of temporary protection.
Interior Ministry State Secretary Ivica Buconjic said that so far a total of 910 asylum requests had been forwarded to Croatian authorities. Of them, 18 have been granted. and 12 applicants have been given subsidiary protection status.
The asylum centre in Kutina currently provides for 38 people, most of whom have come from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia. There are also asylum seekers from Asia and Africa.