Illegal stay and immigration detention

WHAT

A foreigner that resides illegally in the Republic of Croatia must leave the country immediately or within the set deadline. You are illegally residing in the Republic of Croatia, if:
• you are not on a short stay (your visa has been annulled or expired, or you entered illegally)
• you do not have permission for temporary or permanent stay

•you are not permitted to legal stay based on international and temporary protection, i.e. if:

  • you are not a seeker of international protection;
  • you have not been granted asylum or subsidiary protection;
  • you have not been granted temporary protection status;

• you are not a third-country national in the process of applying for temporary stay, extension of temporary stay, applying for permanent residence, or you were not born and have not stayed in the Republic of Croatia since then without the possibility of regulating stay for justified reasons
• you are outside the permitted area of limited movement based on bilateral international agreement
• you are not covered by mobility program such as a studying multilateral program or EU program, or a research visit agreement in a EEA member state where you have a legal stay (or you are a family member of the person on a research visit with legal stay in EEA member state)
You may be detained in order to restrict your freedom of movement and ensure forceful removal and return, if the same purpose cannot be achieved using lesser measures (deposit of travel documents and travel tickets, deposit of certain financial means, prohibition to leave a specific place of accommodation, reporting to a police station at specified times):
• As an illegally staying third-country national who has been issued a return decision, you may be detained if there is risk that you will try to evade the obligation of leaving the European Economic Area (EEA)

The circumstances that can present the risk of avoiding the duty to leave the EEA are: you do not have ID or travel documents; you do not have accommodation; your stay is not officially registered; you made a statement that you will not comply with return measures; you were convicted for criminal offence in another EEA member state; you are a subject to criminal investigation or criminal proceedings or you were convicted for criminal offence in the Republic of Croatia; you are not complying with the return decision; you do not possess sufficient financial means; you did not comply with the order to move to another member state, your previous behaviour shows that you could avoid to comply with the duty to leave the EEA. It is deemed that you are avoiding the duty to leave the EEA if: you refused to provide your personal or other information or documents or you provided false information; you used a falsified document or someone else’s document; you disposed of or destroyed your ID, you refused to provide your fingerprints, by using force or deception you disabled forced return, you did not comply with lesser measures; you entered the Republic of Croatia prior to expiry of entry and stay ban or you entered the Republic of Croatia illegally directly or transiting thought the third country following your stay in another EEA member state.
• As an applicant for international protection, you may be detained for the purpose of determining your identity or nationality; for the purpose of establishing facts and circumstances of the application for international protection if detention is necessary, especially if there is risk of absconding; for the purpose of protecting national security or public order of the Republic of Croatia; for the purpose of avoiding abuse of procedure if it is based on objective criteria that include the possibility of accessing the international protection procedure, there is reasonable doubt that the intention expressed during the forced return procedure aims to prevent further action.

As an asylum applicant subject to Dublin III transfer, you may also be detained for the purpose of ensuring the execution of transfer to another EEA member state if the risk of absconding was established.

GOOD TO KNOW

You are entitled to free legal aid (legal advice, and assistance in compiling the lawsuit and representation at the Administrative Court) in return proceedings that require administrative dispute. You are not entitled to assistance in compiling the lawsuit and representation at the Administrative Court if you have enough money or you already used the free legal aid in proceedings before High Administrative Court.
List of available lawyers and NGOs providing free legal aid is made by the Ministry of Justice.
NGOs providing free legal aid in detention: Centre for Peace studies and Croatian Law Centre.

ATTENTION

You can be detained at the border for a maximum of 48 hours if it is necessary to establish your identity or the circumstances of illegal crossing of the state border. If your identity or circumstances of illegal crossing of the state border cannot be established within the specified period, and restricting your freedom of movement by taking you to the reception centre for foreigners would not be purposeful because of the distance, you can be detained for additional 24 hours.

RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT:

  • A third-country national may be arrested and detained for up to 48 hours, if it is necessary to establish his/her identity or the circumstances of illegal crossing of the state border or illegal stay, and there is risk that the third-country national will abscond;
  • Following the arrest, the third-country national will immediately, without delay, be informed of the reasons for the arrest, of the fact that he/she may designate an attorney for representation, that he/she may notify a family member or another person of the arrest, and that he/she may request that a diplomatic mission or consular post of the country whose national he/she is be informed of the arrest, unless otherwise provided in a treaty;
  • In case of detention of an unaccompanied minor who is a third-country national, the body competent for welfare and the diplomatic mission or consular post of the country whose national the minor is will be notified thereof;
  • A third-country national will be released without delay once the reasons for arrest and detention cease to be effective, and no later than upon expiration of the stipulated time limit, except in cases where transfer has commenced for the purpose of removal (forced return) or expulsion from the border into a third country, or a decision has been adopted regarding his/her accommodation in a reception centre.

Detention may last up to six months. Detention can be extended for another 12 months if you have not been deported within the initial period of detention for “objective reasons’’ (if you don’t cooperate in the deportation procedure by giving false information, if you are preventing or delaying the deportation in another way, if it can reasonably expect the delivery of the required documents from the other country).
As an applicant for international protection, you may be detained for up to 3 months. After the lapse of this period, detention may be extended by the Administrative Court’s decision for an additional period of 3 months.