February 22 (SeeNews) - Croatia accepted less than a tenth of the refugees and asylum-seekers it had committed to relocate and resettle under EU schemes, with police action often involving disproportionate use of force, human rights-focused non-governmental organisation Amnesty International said on Thursday.
The country continued to return to Serbia refugees and migrants who entered the country irregularly, with pushbacks by police routinely involving use of force coercion, intimidation, confiscation or destruction of private valuables, Amnesty International said in its 2017/18 report on world human rights.
Croatia committed to accept 1,600 refugees and asylum-seekers under the EU resettlement and relocation schemes by the end of the year. By mid-November, fewer than a hundred people had been relocated, and none had been resettled.
Also in 2017, discrimination against ethnic and sexual minorities remained widespread in the country, Amnesty found.
Policies adopted by the government in December failed to reflect and adequately address human rights violations faced by Serbs, Roma and sexual minorities, the non-government organisation judged.
In terms of violence against women and girls, Amnesty said that Croatia's criminal justice system continues to fail many victims of domestic abuse by routinely treating abuse as a minor offence.
Croatia is yet to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.