We sent an email to the Government, i.e., Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and the Head of the Office of the Prime Minister, Zvonimir Frka-Petešić, with whom we met on August 4, 2020. To date, we have no knowledge that anything in the Government or in any of the ministries has happened regarding solving the problems of humanitarian demining workers, so we reminded them that the problems need to be solved as soon as possible.

SUBJECT: Meeting on Addressing the Issues of Humanitarian Demining Employees in the Republic of Croatia

Honorees,

On August 4 this year, we held a meeting at the Government of the Republic of Croatia with the Head of the Office of the Prime Minister, Mr. Zvonimir Frka-Petešić, and used the opportunity to inform the Government of the Republic of Croatia about the current problems of employees in humanitarian demining activities in Croatia. To reiterate, currently the biggest problem is the lack of work by the end of this year, probably caused by failures in the preparation of the CARDS project, due to which 58 demining workers have already received cancellations of their employment contracts (this process, in our opinion, jeopardizes the realization of existing demining plans). In addition, there has been no progress in solving the problem of low pensions for deminers for a year, although MUP promised to form a working group in order to make a solution proposal as high-quality as possible. Finally, we have been proposing for several years the development of an exit strategy for demining activities, considering that, according to the plans of MUP, the need for demining in its current form ceases as early as 2025. We believe that a responsible approach would be to find solutions for the employment of demining technicians and other demining workers in other jobs after the demining of Croatia is completed, in a way that enables retraining and the performance of other jobs and activities for workers and employers in the sector.

Since we have no knowledge to date that anything in the Government or any of the ministries has happened since the day of the meeting, and given that on August 4 it was agreed that a new meeting would be held this week with possible proposals for solutions, please inform us as soon as possible about the actions taken and your view of the dynamics of solving the above problems.