IMOTSKI, Croatia (Reuters) - Local Croatian sculptor Roko Drzislav Rebic is carving a life-sized stone replica of a Mercedes Benz Minika car as a monument to the thousands of workers who left their homeland in search of a better fortune abroad. The monument will be revealed on June 8 in Imotski, a small town situated on the slopes of the Dinara mountain, 30 km (48 miles) from the famed Adriatic coast. Another was in 2018 after Croatia joined the European Union and thousands of young people left the country to work in Western Europe. Rebic told Reuters that the stone was brought from areas near Imotski and once the monument is finished it will weigh 50 tonnes. Topic said that according to his estimates there are up to 8,000 Mercedes cars in Imotski which has the population of 25,000.

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Persons: Roko Drzislav, Mercedes, Ivan, Rebic, Antonio Bronic, Ivana Sekularac, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Mercedes Benz, Mercedes, Reuters, Croatia, European Union Locations: IMOTSKI, Croatia, Croatian, Imotski, Western Germany, Germany, Western Europe