Tuesday: Border Guards

My colleague and I took a short trip out of Zagreb this morning to go and have a look at the centre where illegal immigrants are housed.  There are two centres in Croatia - one where asylum seekers are housed and this one where illegal migrants, who are picked up in country, are housed, prior to either deportation, or being rehoused in the asylum centre.  It can house up to 116 people and is full most of the time.  

There are 5 women here at the moment, the rest are men.  There are about 20 different nationalities but the highest number come from Albania and Turkey.  Croatia is not typically a destination country for illegal migrants but is a transit country en route to countries with better welfare systems, such as Germany, the UK, France etc.

Here you have Miroslav, Josip and Zvonko, who run the centre.

Edit: My blip text was written somewhat in haste and I feel that I need to make a correction.  Those transitting Croatia are actually en route to countries where there are greater chances of working, or where the family/community support is likely to be greater than here.  Apologies for the hasty wording and the implication that benefits, which they are unlikely to be able to access anyway, was the determining factor.  It is just one of many factors.