The Impact of Irregular Migrations, Smuggling and Human Trafficking on the Land Transport Industry: The Croatian Case

The major migrant crisis, which has been spreading across Europe for the past few years, has also affected Croatia in many ways. A relatively small country in South East Europe that lies on two important transport corridors – Pan-European Corridor Xa and Vb – happened also to be on two big migratory routes: the Western Balkan route and the Mediterranean route. The consequences thereof have been seen in a huge number of migrants who passed over Croatian territory, going towards countries in Western Europe, often found hidden in trucks and trains at the border crossings towards Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Hungary. This paper deals with the question of the impact this phenomenon has made on freight transport industry in Croatia (and the entire region of South East Europe), by analysing regional trends in irregular migrations of people in connection to the introduction of new police security measures (on trucks and trains), and the performance of road and rail transport services in these sensitive times.