(ANSA) - BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 8 - Croatia should not be allowed to join the Schengen area because of the alleged violent and unlawful treatment the country reserves to migrants and asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today in a statement accompanying a video documenting abuses at the Croatian-Bosnian border.

The HRW video includes interview with witnesses and migrants pushed back from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina. HRW criticized the European Union, which said last month that Croatia is ready to join the Schengen area. However, "the summary return of asylum seekers without consideration of their protection needs is contrary to European Union asylum law, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the 1951 Refugee Convention," said HRW, recalling that the international NGO has "documented summary collective expulsions from Croatia to Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2016." "Croatia's unlawful and violent summary returns of asylum seekers and migrants should disqualify it from joining the Schengen Area," said Lydia Gall, from HRW. " "Letting Croatia join Schengen when migrants and asylum seekers continue to be brutally pushed back would be an EU green light for abuses," Gall noted.

Croatian authorities have repeatedly denied the accusations of journalists, NGOs and activists of abuses and violence against migrants perpetrated by the Croatian police. (ANSA).