Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Romania are racing to implement new EU asylum rules, as right-wingers demand crackdowns and campaigners warn of threats to human rights.
Vuk Tesija
Is it possible to be physically but not legally present in a country? It sounds like a metaphysical question but the EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum, which takes force on June 12, has raised this dilemma.
Croatia is one EU country that has adapted its legislation to the new pact, stating that people going through border procedures in future “shall not be considered to have entered the territory of the Republic of Croatia” even if they are physically in Croatia.
Ana Martinic, from the Croatian Law Centre, told BIRN: “The concept according to which the physical presence of a person on the territory of the European Union does not necessarily have to be considered as legal entry into that territory raises complex questions.”
The Pact on Migration and Asylum is a complex legislative package consisting of ten interconnected legislative acts – nine regulations and one directive.
It has also raised complex political, legal and humanitarian questions in four EU member states around the Balkan region, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Romania, all lying on the outer fringes of the European bloc.
