From the beginning of the migration crisis in Croatia on 16 September 2015, more than 650,000 migrants and refugees entered and transited its territory. Fast transit rates posed a challenge for both the government’s and humanitarian agencies' efforts to provide adequate assistance to the migrants.

In this context the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), through its Migrant and Refugee Fund (MRF) generously offered a grant worth EUR 765,000 to IOM Croatia with the aim to strengthen the assistance and protection of refugees and migrants arriving or transiting through Croatia while also mitigating the negative impacts of the movement.

The project started on 1 January 2016 and is being implemented by IOM Croatia in close coordination with the Ministry of the Interior, the Croatian Red Cross and other relevant partners such as the UNHCR.

Its specific objectives are to provide timely and effective distribution of necessary non-food items (NFIs) and emergency shelter (ES) to all migrants and refugees entering and transiting Croatian territory, with particular focus on vulnerable groups.

Furthermore, it enabled the establishment of the Mobility Tracking Matrix as a flow monitoring tool which provides up-to-date and reliable statistics related to locations, movement, numbers and basic demographics of migrants and refugees transiting through Croatia. Data and information gathered from the Mobility Tracking Matrix is further analyzed and will be used to enhance the predictability of migrant flows, identify their needs and support coordinated emergency response by the government and other stakeholders. So far, more than 3,300 questionnaires were completed and analyzed.

Finally, multilingual information desk has been set up to raise the awareness of migrants on the rights, services and infrastructure available at the transit centre. IOM staff and project-funded interpreters facilitate the reception, registration, and service provision processes, enabling the migrants to exercise their rights and provide feedback.