Chris Hodge, Deputy Head of Mission (DHM), visited Tovarnik on the Croatian-Serbian border on 9 December 2008 to celebrate the completion of a second phase of the joint Croatian-Serbian Border Police project.

The project was designed to build up the capacity of the Croatian and Serbian border police to work together in tackling crime along the border region. The project is urgently needed: the Croatian - Serbian border sits on the infamous Balkans smuggling route used for smuggling cigarettes, drugs, and people backwards and forwards across the East and West of Europe.

The UK was pivotal in making the project come about. In 2006 the Embassy in Zagreb purchased technical equipment for the Croatian and Serbian border police, including Land Rover vehicles; heartbeat monitors; thermovision cameras; and kits for detection of forged documents. We also paid for training, which was delivered by the International Organisation for Migration.

The British Embassies in Zagreb and Belgrade teamed up with the Croatian and Serbian Border Police to deliver a second phase for the project. This time the Croatian police helped train their Serbian police colleagues in the tactics they’ve been using on the Croatian side of the border. The second phase also strengthened connections between the two sides and helped them both prepare for Integrated Border Management, one of the requirements for the EU accession.

Both phases of the project have been a huge success. Seizures at the border have increased by 35% and it’s estimated that illegal migration and people smuggling has dropped by 65%.  Migration organisations are reporting that the smuggling route has now had to move to the North (Hungary) and South (Montenegro, B&H).

Co- operation between the two countries on border policing is by far the best in the region. Intelligence and best practise are being exchanged more readily and both sets of police are also now finding practical solutions for policing the border on the Danube and targeting illegal hot spots. The standards of policing are now at an EU level, at what will soon be one of the EU’s external borders.

At Tovarnik, where he was joined by the Bill Longhurst, the British DHM for the British Embassy in Belgrade, Mr Nikola Milina, Head of the Croatian Police Border Directorate, Mr Josko Tadic, Head of the National Mobile Unit and regional and local media, Chris Hodge said he was very satisfied with what he’d seen:

“Over the past 2 years”, he said, “the UK Government invested a total of GBP 277,000 in this project. From what I’ve seen today and heard from our Croatian and Serbian colleagues, it has been money well spent. This project has made a real difference to Croatia and Serbia’s security. Everyone involved should take a lot of credit.”

The Embassy is now looking at the options for rolling the project out further to other parts of Croatia’s border.