“CROATIA DOESN’T WANT RETURNEES”: A young woman returns home from Ireland and faces numerous problems!

“I want my story to be heard, and not to say Croatia wants returnees because that’s a blatant lie. We are systematically made it difficult at every step, and we experience discrimination and harassment,” she said.

A young woman who recently returned to Croatia from Ireland told Nova TV about her, as she says, the disappointing experience of returning and facing Croatian reality.

“I came to Croatia in July and could only get an ID card in September. And without it, I couldn’t register my residence or apply for any job, not to mention that I didn’t have health insurance,” begins her story, a young woman from Zadar who says she is highly disappointed in the Croatian state.

Return from Ireland

For love, she agreed to return from Ireland. She went there at the age of 19, graduated from university, got a job, and then decided to return.

“My partner, also a Croat, is a sailor, so it was more convenient for us to settle in Croatia. I agreed because I prefer our climate, and after much hesitation, I said, ‘Yes, let’s try’. I already regretted it after trying to register for residency in Zadar. Until then, I had a residence in Ireland. I deregistered here because I didn’t even think about returning. Still, now that I had returned, I wanted to register again. The police told me that I would have to wait about a month and a half for them to come to my address to check if I lived there, and then they would also question my neighbors, even though none of them knew me. I don’t understand that logic; why should I be home for a month and a half for them to knock on my door? And what will they look for, see where I keep my underwear?! I don’t understand by what laws they can share my data,” asks the 27-year-old Croatian woman.

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“They laughed at me at the Health Insurance Fund.”

Since she is pregnant, she needs medical check-ups, but she was not registered in Croatia, so she was not health insured.

“They laughed at me at the Health Insurance Fund, saying they couldn’t do anything but say that I should pay 1,300 euros for insurance for the past year and another 98 euros for the months I need insurance for! Why should I pay for the past year when I wasn’t even here or spent anything? They said I should get a job somewhere and that I might be able to get insurance based on that. But I couldn’t do that either because without a place of residence, I couldn’t apply for a job and so on,” she explained.

She got health insurance because her partner’s father employed her “on paper” to insure her.

“Not to mention how they treated me at the counters, wherever I went, from the employment office to the police to health insurance, the clerks were rude and inaccessible. In Ireland, I worked in the Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs IT sector, so I didn’t deal with the public, but you know how they behave; it’s unthinkable to raise your voice at a customer there. In Croatia, extortion and rudeness are common at all counters. I got used to such behavior; there is no chance of anyone behaving like that to customers at work,” our interlocutor emphasizes.

Already thinking of leaving

She says all this made her reconsider leaving, even though her partner still wants to stay.

“Yes, he wants to, but I won’t. I would somehow understand if I were a foreign citizen. Still, such an attitude towards someone with Croatian citizenship who was born and has lived here for 20 years? Everyone wants us to come back, but they make it difficult for us at every step,” the disappointed interlocutor concludes, who wishes to remain anonymous.

She adds that she is upset about everything and under constant stress, so she is worried about the baby due in the spring.

“I’m waiting for my first gynecological examination, which I will have to pay for, plus all other examinations, and after that, I’m going back to Ireland, and I don’t intend to step foot in Croatia anymore! I should renounce my citizenship and forget that I ever experienced this disgusting behavior. Croatia can only dream of ever being even close to Ireland. How you live here is beyond me. I want my story to be heard, and I do not want to say that Croatia wants returnees because that’s a blatant lie. We are systematically made it difficult at every step, and we experience discrimination and harassment,” she said.