Report on the Performance of the Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism for 2019 As in the majority of homes for the elderly we visited over the previous years, in this home too, residents who are immobile or have impaired mobility are not housed on the ground floor, which makes it unclear how, if need arose, an evacuation of residents and staff would be carried out. Although there are two exits on the first floor, it took the staff quite a long time to find the key for the rather narrow emergency exit. The home also has no smoke alarms, and as no evacuation drills for cases of emergency such as fire or earthquake have been conducted so far, we recommended that they urgently be conducted. Such drills should be carried out regularly in all homes for the elderly, with a special emphasis on units housing residents with impaired mobility, immobile residents and those suffering from dementia. 1.5. APPLICANTS OF INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION AND IRREGULAR MIGRANTS Migrations are a challenge at the global, European and national levels, both for countries of origin, as well as for transit and destination countries. The greatest disputes arose over irregular migrations, and there are few solutions that would enable different, that is, legal routes of arrival for those in need of protection. When it comes to causes of mass migrations, as well as solving them, there are no simple answers. Poverty, conflicts and persecutions as joint factors certainly increase their complexity, while climate change, along other causes, announces their further intensification, making better management of mass migration one of the most important tasks in sustainable development. 24 Faced with the need to urgently solve the issues of migration, both due to the numbers of persons arriving at its borders, and many controversies this has caused within and among individual member states, the EU has still not managed to achieve an agreement on the proposed reform of the Common European Asylum System, primarily the Dublin system, under which the first countries of entry bear the greatest responsibility to process requests for international protection. In addition, a lack of solidarity has not contributed to even distribution of responsibility among member states, regardless of their geographic position. In a situation of heightened migration pressures, (delayed) reform of the asylum system, lack of NUMBER OF IRREGULAR MIGRANTS 20.278 solidarity and member states installing wire fencing on the borders of neighbouring member states, in 2015 the Republic of Croatia declared its readiness to start the Schengen evaluation process, and began preparations for accession into the Schengen area. During the 8.207 3.759 4.496 process, the MoI stressed the importance of protecting 5.512 borders that are not only Croatian, but are also external EU borders, emphasising that, instead of installing fencing or wire, it by and large uses discouragement 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 methods, that is, placing large numbers of police