Croatian police reported on Saturday that detained four men in connection with an attack on a worker from abroadwhich accompanied the motif of racism. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency. The physical attack on the delivery service courier took place late Friday evening in the coastal city of Split. A 41-year-old worker from abroad and one attacker suffered minor injuries.
They immediately followed this attack three other attacks targeting foreign food delivery workers, also in Split, during which one Nepali was seriously injured. The other victim was from India, the nationalities of the remaining two were not disclosed.
Police said they are still looking for the perpetrators of the three attacks. However, the detained four suspected of attacking a 41-year-old person are the subject of a “hate crime” investigation. The HINA agency specified that they are four young men, including three minor boys.
Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović strongly condemned these incidents, calling them “shocking” and “disturbing”. At the same time, he emphasized that violence, discrimination and xenophobia, especially towards people who come to Croatia to work, must not be tolerated in any form. Croatia has been struggling with a labor shortage for a long time, as people from this EU member country are emigrating en masse abroad and, in addition, its population is decreasing.
The country is traditionally dependent on seasonal workers from neighboring Balkan statesbut it increasingly relies on workers from countries such as Nepal, India and the Philippines, who fill tens of thousands of jobs mainly in the construction and tourism industries on the Adriatic coast.
Last year, Croatia granted work permits to almost 120,000 non-EU nationals, which represents an increase of 40 percent compared to 2022. This number will be surpassed in 2024, as almost 150,000 such work permits.
During the year, the Zagreb police pointed out that the number of attacks on foreign workers, especially delivery service couriers, is increasing. In most cases, however, these were not racially motivated attacks, but rather robberies.
