On August 15 at around 1:00 am, a group of 25 young men were violently pushed back from Croatia to Bosnia by Croatian authorities. The young man who was the primary respondent for this report was a 20-year-old from Afghanistan, however, he recalled the group he was traveling with was demographically diverse, including persons from Pakistani and Bangladeshi. Minors were also present within the group.

The group had originally crossed from Bosnian into Croatia in the late evening hours of August 14th, and made their way on foot towards the D1 road – a major thoroughfare connecting the northern and southern parts of Croatia. Shortly after crossing the road, a group of approximately ten to fifteen Croatian officers came upon the group, with several of the officers discharging their firearms into the air. The respondent referred to the officers as “jungle police” and described them as wearing camouflaged clothing and being particularly dangerous.

The young men in the group were all ordered to lay prone on the ground.

“All migrants respect police, but the police say no respect,” the respondent said.

He described that his group listened to the commands of the officers, but the police abused them anyways. Some of the officers were described to have taken pictures and videos of the group on their mobile phones and laughed at them. Some officers threw rocks at the group-members as they were laying flat on the ground; they were also stepped on and kicked. One officer reportedly tied a rope around a man’s neck, as if to hang him, another officer protested, but he insisted. The man was reported to have been hung for some time, but survived.

Eventually, after being searched and abused, the group was transported in vehicles back to the Bosnian-Croatian border south of Bihac, whereupon the made their way back to the city.