Report on the Performance of Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism for 2015 sufficient to just conduct an investigation, but rather it has to be an efficient, thorough and independent one, which includes the obligation of gathering the required evidence. An investigation is not independent if it has been carried out by the police, because in that case there is a hierarchical and institutional connection. In this specific case, the ECHR found that even the competent state attorney’s office failed to undertake independent steps in implementation of an efficient investigation and gathering of required evidence but rather that they limited itself to a police-internal evaluation of legality and justifiability of the use of means of coercion. A violation of the procedural aspect of Article 3 of the Convention on Human Rights was confirmed and it was indicated that whenever there is a credible allegation that an individual suffered serious abuse by the police, it is implicitly required for an efficient official investigation to be conducted and for it to lead to identification and penalizing of the responsible parties. For the purpose of ensuring that the investigation is thorough, the authorities always have to invest serious efforts to determine what actually happened, and in concluding the investigation the authorities should not rely on hasty or unfounded conclusions. The situation in which citizens do not have the opportunity to make use of the option of filing a complaint to the Committee, as a form of civil supervision over the police, represents an additional indication of the shortcomings of the system, when it is required to conduct independent investigation of a complaint filed due to police treatment. 4.3. Applicants for international protection, irregular migrants and persons who have been granted international protection Ensuring the respect for the basic human rights of applicants for international protection, irregular migrants and persons with granted international protection has become an increasingly burning issue, especially since the outbreak of the refugee crisis. A Common European Asylum System (CEAS) has been forming at the EU level for the last ten years with the aim of establishing a unique and consistent procedure in granting international protection. Such approach has resulted in harmonization of national legislation with directives and regulations of the European Union and in the adoption of the Act on International and Temporary Protection (hereinafter: AITP) in 2015. Each year, more than 80% of applicants for international protection leave the Republic of Croatia prior to the decision being made on their application, so the majority of procedures still get suspended, which clearly indicates that, for most of them, it is not a destination, but a transit country. This was especially evident during the refugee flow, in which out of 555,700 persons who entered the Republic of Croatia by 31 December 2015, only 21 had requested international protection. The reasons for that are, among others, less successful measures of integration and lesser material rights, both during the procedure and after being granted protection. 29