To enter Croatia, you need a foreign or international passport. No visa required. If you travel with children, you need documents that prove your family ties. You do not need any documents for pets.
The Border Police will carry out border control and give you a card with basic information. Depending on your wish to stay in the Republic of Croatia, you must apply for a short-term stay or temporary protection status at the place of accommodation.
Please, see the detailed procedure and frequently asked questions in Ukrainian HERE
As a person under temporary protection, you have the right to:
- stay for the duration of your temporary protection,
- get a card for a foreigner under temporary protection, which is considered a residence permit,
- work without a residence, get a work permit or a certificate of registration for work,
- the right to healthcare – by presenting the card of a foreigner under temporary protection, you exercise all rights from the basic health insurance, and if you get a job, you will receive the card of a health insured person,
- fixed assets for living and accommodation,
- primary and secondary education at the same standard as Croatian citizens, family reunification and information on rights and obligations.
After entering the border areas of the EU (Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary) you may be offered the following options for further transportation to Croatia:
- private transportation (prices from 100 euros), however Croatian volunteer initiatives recommend avoiding such carriers and looking for options that are free of charge;
- transport that is free of charge is provided by individuals, members of volunteer groups: they can immediately offer you free accommodation in Croatian or Ukrainian-Croatian families. You can check the help groups for Ukrainians on the social network Facebook and write a request to find transportation
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/sosukrajina (SOS in Ukraine)
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/756120944473505 (Ukrainians in Croatia / Ukrainians in Croatia)
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1486890921623896 (Ukrainians in Croatia)
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/640829747190168 (Croats for Ukraine).
Free transportation can be provided by buses, minibuses or private cars of volunteers.
Information on housing, shelters, accommodation in Croatia. As a person under temporary protection in Croatia, you can be accommodated in:
Reception accommodation – the stay here is short, usually up to 48 hours and you will be provided with a place to sleep, food, internet access, and psychosocial and health support. After that, you will be offered more permanent accommodation in one of the collective accommodations.
Employees of the Directorate of Civil Protection, the Croatian Red Cross, police officers, and health workers are in the shelters, and if necessary, mobile teams of other relevant bodies and operational forces of the civil protection system are organized (social work, employment office, education, civil protection operational forces etc.
Acceptable accommodation includes:
- Varaždin – City Sports Hall (small hall), Šetalište Franje Tuđmana 1 (location link),
- Osijek – Sports Hall South 2, Ulica kralja Petra Svačića 67 (location link)
- Gospić – City Sports Hall, OŠ dr. Jure Turića, Ulica Miroslava Kraljevića 19 (location link).
Collective accommodation – this is a more permanent form of accommodation in which you are provided with accommodation, food, and internet access. At these locations, there are hotel staff for all issues related to accommodation and stay, and employees of the Directorate of Civil Protection and the Croatian Red Cross will visit you every day and coordinate all activities for all your questions and needs.
Individual and/or private accommodation – accommodation with citizens, relatives, friends, acquaintances, or if you are the owner of real estate in Croatia. You continue to exercise other rights that belong to you.
The information mentioned above in Ukrainian is available HERE
There are no shelters in Croatia, which specifically focus on and provide housing for key populations (people who use drugs, MSM, sex workers, people living with HIV, etc.)
As a person under temporary protection, by showing the card of a foreigner under temporary protection, you have the right to treatment for acute conditions and chronic diseases by family doctors, pediatricians, gynecologists, and emergency dental services, the right to vaccination, testing and treatment against COVID-19, and the right to vaccination against other infectious diseases. This practice refers to ART and medical services related to HIV, OST, Hepatitis C and TB.
Your children are fully equal in rights with Croatian children, and they have the right to access complete medical care.
If you need emergency medical care, call 194 or 112.
To exercise your right to health care, always have an ID card of a person under temporary protection!
The Croatian Red Cross provides refugees with clothing, hygiene products, and food packages. Offices of the Red Cross are in every county (region) of Croatia https://www.hck.hr/adresar/50
You can also send a request to one of the groups on Facebook:
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/sosukrajina(SOS ua Ukrajina)
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/756120944473505(Українці в Хорватії / Ukrajinci u Hrvatskoj)
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1486890921623896(Українці в Хорватії)
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/640829747190168(Hrvati za Ukrajinu).
When deciding about private accommodation, keep in mind that organized accommodation facilities for displaced persons (hotel facilities, hostels) provide all necessary services and free meals, clothing, etc. Such help will not be constantly provided if you live on your own, financial assistance from the state is one-off and small, and food and hygiene products in Croatia are not cheap.
NGO FLIGHT / Udruga Let Ratarska 7, Zagreb |
NGO HELP Šetalište Bačvice 10 |
Udruga TERRA Krešimirova 12, Rijeka |
Udruga INSTITUT Dobricheva 32, Pula |
UDRUGA PORAT Ilije Smiljanića 2, 23000, Zadar |
Udruga za borbu protiv ovisnosti “NE – OVISNOST” Europske avenije 8/I, Osijek, tel.+ 385 31 271 471, email: info@ne-ovisnost.hr |
Croatian Red Cross (Zagreb, Zadar, Nova Gradiška, Krapina). You can find contacts of the relevant offices at the website: |
People can receive psychosocial support upon request as they arrive. Please, ask Croatian Red Cross staff for referrals and assistance.
You can receive psychosocial support from professional specialists at the Centers for Social Welfare. You can find the local branches’ contacts by googling ‘Centar za socijalnu skrb’. Each Center in each region has its website.
You can get psychosocial support in HIV-service organizations mentioned in p.7.
Psychologists work in all organized accommodation facilities for displaced persons. Relevant translation services are also available.
In Croatia, the OST (supstitucijska terapija) and all relevant health services are available free of charge within the basic health insurance package available to refugees and people under temporary protection.
Only specialist office-based medical doctors (e.g. general practitioners) and treatment centers can prescribe substitution treatment. However, this treatment is predominantly administered by general practitioners. OST is provided in outpatient settings through drug prescribing.
Outpatient treatment of drug addiction is provided with the help of 21 Services for the Protection of Mental Health and Addiction Prevention at the County Institutes of Public Health, the Counseling Center for Prevention of Addiction (Poreč), and the polyclinic of the KBC Sestre milosrdnice (Zagreb).
The services include:
- substitution therapy,
- psychosocial treatment and
- other specific methods and procedures according to user needs.
You have to arrange an appointment with a general practitioner (a family medicine doctor) in the nearest Health Center (Dom zdravlja). You need to bring your person under the temporary protection ID, and relevant medical documents about your therapy and health condition (originals or copies). You can refer to the Croatian Red Cross to assist you with the meeting, translation, and choosing GP, especially if you are waiting for your ID to be ready.
GP will refer you to the doctor in Services for the Protection of Mental Health and Addiction Prevention which will examine your condition and issue an OST prescription and other recommendations. As soon as GP gets this opinion, he/she issues an electronic prescription.
Addresses of mental health and addiction prevention services of county public health institutes:
In Croatia the following OST medications are available:
- Methadon
- Buprenorhpine
- Buprenorphine and naloxone (Suboxone)
Opioid substitution therapy (OST) is predominantly administered by general practitioners and is available in prisons as well.
In Croatia, the ART and all relevant health services for PLWH are available free of charge within the basic health insurance package available to refugees and people under temporary protection.
In Croatia, treatment, care, and support for PLWH are provided centrally at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases Fran Mihaljević, which offers proper treatment to those who need it (free of charge). The Clinic drug store provides the ART medicines. To get a prescription, you need to make an appointment with a specialist and a medical examination.
You have to arrange an appointment with a general practitioner (a family medicine doctor) in the nearest Health Center (Dom zdravlja) and bring all relevant medical documents about your therapy and health condition you have (originals or copies). You can refer to the Croatian Red Cross to assist you with the meeting, translation, and choosing GP, especially if you are waiting for your ID to be ready or you want to stay in Croatia temporarily.
GP will refer you to The University Hospital for Infectious Diseases (UHID) (Klinika za infektivne bolesti “Dr. Fran Mihaljević”) located in Zagreb:
Mirogojska 8,
10 000 Zagreb
+385 1 2826-222
+385 1 4678-235
bfm@bfm.hr.
https://bfm.hr/referentni-centar-za-dijagnostiku-i-lijecenje-zaraze-hiv-om/
If you live with HIV, please, consider accommodation in Zagreb or nearby locations so you are not too far from the Hospital.
If people are not applying for refugee status (i.e. have a status of migrants), they still can receive OST, ART or any other medical or psychological support.
Social Rights and Assistance You prove your official status as a person with the card of a foreigner under temporary protection! An expert from the social welfare center (Centar za socijalnu skrb) will talk to you to determine how you can best be helped. You have the right to
You can submit a request for a one-time allowance to the on-duty social worker in the Reception and Collective Accommodation visited by Mobile Teams. If you are in individual private accommodation, you can apply at the Centers for Social Welfare and branches in Croatia. This assistance is paid once in cash and is used to cover extraordinary expenses incurred due to current life circumstances. Additional information can be obtained at the contact phone +385 99 399 7317 and e-mail ukrajina@mrosp.hr. Employment and Work As a person under temporary protection, you can work in the Republic of Croatia without a residence and work permit or a certificate of registration, which means that you do not need an additional permit to enter the labour market. Contact the Croatian Employment Service (CES) and register in the register of unemployed persons. You can apply via e-mail: ukrajina@hzz.hr, or in person at the reception center to a CES representative, or by coming to the CES regional offices. Important telephone numbers Unique toll-free number 114 (8 a.m. until 4 p.m./ 7 days a week). The telephone number for the care of displaced persons from war-torn Ukraine (you can get information on accommodation, food, health care, children’s education, employment status, and other rights); supported languages are Croatian and Ukrainian. People with voice, hearing, and speech impairments can send inquiries to the following e-mail address: cz114@civilna-zastita.hr Embassy of Ukraine in Zagreb, Voćarska 52 E-mail: emb_hr@mfa.gov.ua Consulate of Ukraine in Omišalj, Pušća 131 Consulate of Ukraine in Split, Coast of the Croatian National Revival 7 Ukrainian Community of the Republic of Croatia, Cardinal Alojzija Stepinca 45, Vukovar Single European Emergency Number – 112 Information and reservations for calls from abroad to the number: +385 1 647 1100 Important Websites A website with all the information you need https://hrvatskazaukrajinu.gov.hr . This website contains all valuable information for the reception and care of displaced persons from Ukraine and information for everyone who wants to help the displaced population of Ukraine. Official website in Ukrainian that you can send to anyone seeking help in Croatia https://hrvatskazaukrajinu.gov.hr/ua/. Experience based information about seeking help in Croatia: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bso9AJQpyTKQ6iSA9nqrp7DIPselgF_j/view?fbclid=IwAR2VQQ0Zrhvsbm0W1WkljQLVvIP7US1EVYmUHkFIZTCC0EIMZO1tLyZxdaA Croatian Railways passenger transport provides free transport to Ukrainian citizens on all routes in the national railway traffic of the Republic of Croatia in the 2nd class of trains. Free tickets for Ukrainian citizens can be issued at the ticket office or on the train by presenting a Ukrainian passport, identity card or a decision on approval of entry into the Republic of Croatia. |