4.1.2. Situation along the Balkan routes
![icon for situation along the Balkan routes](/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_column/public/2022-06/ar-2022-s412-balkan-routes.png?itok=rf6G7KGO)
In 2021, several EU+ countries in central Europe and along the Balkan routes received considerably more applications for international protection than in 2020. This included Austria (39,000 applications, +162%), Bulgaria (11,000, +212%), Romania (9,600, +56%), Slovenia (5,300, +49%) and Croatia (2,900, + 83%) (see Figure 4.2). The significant increase in Austria made it one of the top five receiving countries among EU+ countries. This was partly due to Syrians lodging three times as many applications in Austria as in 2020, remaining by far the largest applicant group.
In addition, Afghan applicants strongly contributed to the increases in all five countries: their number more than doubled in Austria and Croatia, and more than tripled in Bulgaria and Slovenia. Afghans were by far the largest applicant group in Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia, as well as the second-largest in Austria. Detected illegal border-crossings along the Western Balkan route rose steeply in August and September 2021, which coincided with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Overall, illegal border-crossings detected on this route were significantly higher than in 2020, in every month after January 2021.
In Austria, the Regional Administrative Court of Styria condemned the return of a Moroccan national who was arrested at the border with Slovenia. Despite the fact that a clear wish to apply for asylum was expressed, the authorities proceeded to return him to Slovenia, from where he was deported to Croatia, and subsequently returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this case, the court noted that the deportation by Slovenian police to Croatia, and the onward deportation from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina without examining the person’s individual situation, amounted to chain refoulement.
Rising applications in countries along the Balkan routes
Figure 4.2. Asylum applications in selected EU+ countries along the Balkan routes (left) and detections of illegal border-crossings (right) on the Western Balkan route, 2021 compared to 2020
![Figure 2 Asylum applications in selected EU+ countries along the Balkan routes](/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_column/public/2022-06/ar-2022-figure42.png?itok=ycElQi3n)
In Bulgaria, the ECtHR found a violation when a Turkish national who had irregularly crossed the border in 2016 by hiding in a heavy goods vehicle and who expressed fears of ill treatment if returned to Turkey was not given the opportunity to submit an application for international protection and was instead handed over to Turkish authorities at a border post.
In Croatia, following reports of alleged pushbacks, border violence and allegations of impunity for law enforcement officers in 2020,
The ministry underlined that an independent monitoring mechanism of police action toward migrants has been running in Croatia since 2008 by NGOs. The mechanism was carried out by the Croatian Legal Centre in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands between 2008 and 2011, and by the Croatian Legal Centre in cooperation with UNHCR between 2012-2014 and 2018-2019. The process of drafting a legal basis for the independent monitoring mechanism was launched in 2020 in cooperation with the European Commission and led to the conclusion of the new agreement. The national Office of the Ombudsperson participated in the first meeting of the advisory board of the newly-established national independent border-monitoring mechanism.
In a judgment decided in November 2021, the ECtHR found violations of the European Charter of Human Rights (ECHR) by Croatia, after a 6-year-old girl died on the tracks when ordered to return to Serbia from Croatia in 2017. The court noted that the Croatian authorities failed to conduct an effective investigation into the circumstances leading to the girl’s death and concluded a violation of the ECHR, Article 2 from a procedural aspect. Regarding the complaint that the applicants were subjected to collective expulsion without an individual assessment of their circumstances, the court considered it was unable to establish whether Croatia provided the mother applicant and her five children with genuine and effective access to procedures for a legal entry to the country, and thus concluded that their removal was in breach of Protocol No 4 of the ECHR, Article 4.
In January 2021, the Commissioner for Human Rights published written observations in three ECtHR cases against Croatia
In its report analysing the situation in 2020, a network of civil society organisations claimed that the Croatian state was in direct violation of the ECHR, Article 3 through the organisation of premeditated and coordinated pushbacks and ill treatment of migrants.
The transit zones at the Hungarian-Serbian border were closed in May 2020 as a response by the Hungarian authorities to the FMS and Others judgment in Joined Cases C-924/19 PPU and C-925/19. However, in March 2021, the ECtHR ruled that the extended stay of asylum applicants in these transit zones previously, the considerable delays in examining their application, the conditions of their stay and the lack of a judicial review of their detention within the transit zone constituted a violation of the ECHR, Articles 55(1) and 55(4) (see Section 4.8). In 2021, judgments related to the now defunct transit zones were still pending.
The special conditions to submit an asylum application which were introduced by the Hungarian government in May 2020 were extended until 31 December 2022.
The Budapest Regional Court declared an administrative act from the asylum authority to be unlawful as it rejected an asylum claim without a substantive examination for an applicant who was already on the territory but lost his lawful residence title in the meantime. According to the asylum authority’s decision, the applicant could have only submitted his intent to apply for asylum at the embassy in Belgrade, Serbia. The court concluded that the applicant was subject to unlawful discrimination, as the court was made aware of at least one case when an asylum application was examined on its substance without the applicant having submitted a declaration of intent prior to applying for asylum. In addition, the CJEU held that Hungary had breached EU law by criminalising the facilitation of lodging an asylum application by persons who are not entitled to international protection under Hungarian law.
In a final judgment from the ECtHR dated October 2021, a violation was found against Hungary when a Pakistani national, who irregularly crossed the border in 2016 and told Hungarian police officers that he wanted asylum, was returned to Serbia without being allowed to lodge an asylum application. In February 2021, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee made submissions to the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants when it documented several instances of pushbacks to Serbia; pushbacks from the international airport in Budapest; and pushbacks after failed official deportation to the country of origin.
In Romania, the authorities introduced a card document for asylum seekers which was intended to prevent the circulation of forged documents.
In March 2021, the Slovenian National Assembly adopted amendments to the International Protection Act.
A network of civil society organisations reported alleged chain pushbacks from Slovenia to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.
In April 2021, the Slovenian Supreme Court upheld a decision on a breach of the prohibition of refoulement and collective expulsion and the right to access the asylum procedure. A Cameroonian national who applied for international protection in Slovenia was transferred to Croatia and subsequently to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The court ruled that Slovenia breached the prohibition on collective expulsions as the competent authorities did not objectively assess individual circumstances.