Croatia continues to repatriate its citizens from the Middle-East

Croatia continues to evacuate its citizens from the region. A plane carrying 39 Croatian citizens from the Middle East landed at Zagreb Airport on Thursday, with another flight expected to arrive back in Zagreb at around midnight.

Speaking at Thursday’s cabinet session Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that the safety of Croatian citizens in the Middle-East is a top priority for the government: “We are prepared to organize another three repatriation flights on planes sent from Croatia to the Emirates depending on how the situation develops and the needs on site. Furthermore, in cooperation with the government in the Emirates and their airline companies, we have organized two airplanes that are currently in Dubai be filled with more than three hundred Croatian citizens tonight and flown to Croatia.”

The prime minister said that the first phase of the repatriation flights will cover Croatian citizens who were vacationing or on business in the region, while the second phase will then address the roughly two thousand Croatians residents of the Emirates.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs announced on Thursday that Croatia is the only European Union member state that has been given permission to use its national air carrier for the purpose of returning its citizens.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ivan Anušić has confirmed that on the order of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Croatian Armed Forces, Zoran Milanović, the Chief of the General Staff General Tihomir Kundid has initiated the evacuation of seven Croatian soldiers from the NATO mission in Iraq and one from the mission in Lebanon. Minister Anušić added that their evacuation will only be possible once conditions are in place for their safe transport to Croatia. He noted however, that it would have been better if the President had not acted unilaterally on the matter: “Based on the law and the Constitution, the President has the authority to issue such an order, and he issued the order. Nowhere does it specify whether or not he needs to consult with anyone, and he did not. Right now that order is effective and it will be implemented. There is no conflict between the government and the president, nor do we need one. But some moves could definitely be handled in a better, and in my mind, a more politically reasonable way. To me it would have been better if we had coordinated together, achieved a joint agreement on the order, which we absolutely have nothing against, as opposed to me, as Minister of Defense, finding out via the media that the order has been issued to evacuate our soldiers.”

Source: HRT