Humanitarian Impulses, Nationalist Imperatives: Croatia and European Refugee Crisis

How does a country turn from providing high-quality humanitarian care for almost 660,000 refugees to abusing asylum seekers? Starting in September 2015, Croatia was a crucial link in the humanitarian corridor in the Western Balkans. The Croatian government centralized the flow of refugees and coordinated humanitarian aid, creating a response notable for the strong government role in ensuring humane treatment of refugees and for the level of coordination between government, non-governmental, religious, and international groups. However, the end of the humanitarian corridor in early 2016 marked the start of increasing government abuses, including physical abuse of people trying to cross the border and denial of legal process for asylum seekers.

What explains this contradiction? This paper analyzes press releases and media accounts, as well as interviews and documents collected from actors involved in refugee care, including government officials, representatives of international organizations, and INGO and Croatian NGO staff members.

I find that Croatia’s response to refugees was shaped by the 1990s Balkans wars. Government officials and humanitarian aid workers drew on their experiences as refugees or aid workers in the 1990s war to justify a strong humanitarian-oriented response. However, this response was limited to refugees on the move; when refugees sought asylum in Croatia, the Croatian government drew on nationalist narratives developed in the 1990s to justify preventing resettlement. This paper fills a crucial gap in our understanding of refugee reception, showing the way a country’s history of conflict shapes its response to refugees from other wars.