Croatia Border Chaos: PM Blames Tourist Surge and New System for Montenegro Delays

A significant traffic jam at the Konavle border crossing with Montenegro, stretching over 20 kilometers and causing wait times of more than 10 hours, has been attributed by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković to a confluence of factors. He pointed to the large number of tourists, particularly Albanian citizens returning from Western Europe for holidays, coinciding with the end of school breaks in Bavaria as a primary cause.

Plenković also cited the new EES system, designed to enhance border security and control illegal migration, as a contributing factor to the slowdown. He explained that while necessary for security, such integrated computer systems can cause delays during peak travel periods.

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If you have a political endeavor, and even consensus, to prevent all possible aspects of illegal migration, one of the ways to do that is through control systems, and that means everyone enters a large common computer system. Then that, unfortunately, when these are intense summer months, sometimes causes congestion.

The severe situation led to the activation of the Konavle Municipality Civil Protection Headquarters. Local authorities, firefighters, and police distributed water to stranded travelers enduring tropical temperatures. Some residents opened their homes to offer relief, providing access to restrooms and refreshments. The head of the municipality, Božo Lasić, warned of rising tensions among both travelers and locals due to the prolonged waits, noting that some individuals required medical attention for exhaustion.

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What happened towards Montenegro, are mostly Albanian citizens who live and work in Western Europe, and who have taken this route, which is the shortest for them.