A leading rights group has accused European Union states of complacency in the "systematic, unlawful and frequently violent pushbacks" by Croatian border guards of thousands of asylum-seekers to squalid and unsafe refugee camps in Bosnia.

Amnesty International said in a report released Wednesday that "European governments are not just turning a blind eye to vicious assaults by the Croatian police, but also funding their activities."

The reports says "in doing so, they are fueling a growing humanitarian crisis on the edge of the European Union."

Croatian authorities have repeatedly denied such reports in the past.

Thousands of migrants have been stuck in Bosnia as they seek to move on toward Western Europe. Migrants mostly travel illegally with the help of people smugglers.