Croatia's Foreign Ministry has called on its citizens to avoid traveling to Serbia, following the incident that occurred last night in Belgrade where at least 14 members of civil society organizations were arrested and subsequently deported.
"Exercise caution, monitor the current situation and obtain more detailed information before traveling due to the recorded inappropriate and unfounded actions of the authorities of the Republic of Serbia towards Croatian citizens," the press release states.
A group of plainclothes police officers raided the hotel where activists from several European countries were staying yesterday morning, who were there as part of a "workshop" on the economy.
Among them were four Croatian girls and two Albanian citizens. They were escorted to the police station, interrogated for hours, and forced to sign documents without knowing the contents, which turned out to be deportation orders for one year from Serbia on grounds of “national security.”
In an open letter, 310 organizations from across Europe call on “EU institutions and EU member states to take seriously these human rights violations committed by the Serbian government and to use political and institutional means to hold the Serbian government accountable for its actions against its citizens and citizens of neighboring countries facing civil rights violations, documented in detail by international human rights organizations.”
The Serbian authorities "strongly request that they provide a transparent explanation of these unreasonable and illegal actions against civil activists from EU member states and candidates and ensure that such unfair treatment is not repeated."