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If we move, they would have kicked us, as well if we speak any word in english

Date & Time 2021-04-08
Location Lipovac, Croatia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.055126, 19.101413
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 15 - 27
Group size 4
Countries of origin Afghanistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 4
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, theft of personal belongings
Police involved 3 croatian border-police officers, 1 police van. Border police (blue uniform)

The respondent reports that, on the morning of the 4th of August, a group of four people was trying to enter Croatia from Serbia, hidden inside a truck. The respondent explained that they were traveling for many hours; he stated that, at the border crossing, the truck had to wait for many hours in the sun. “We stayed inside the van almost 10 hours, under the sun, waiting for the scanner, we start to feel very faint and dizzy.”

According to the respondent, at around 1 p.m. what were described as officers of the Croatian border police discovered them through the scanner and removed them from the truck. There were three officers at the border crossing who checked their pockets for money, and reportedly took 150 euros from them but did not take their phones. As the respondent describes, afterward the men got severely beaten. 

But main matter was not the money, we were beaten very hard: slapping, jumping on us, boxing…”

Afterward, the men were forced to sit in a very uncomfortable position for about one hour. The respondents described the position as a sort of squat: they were kneeling down but were not allowed to touch the ground with their bottoms.

If we move, they would have kicked us, as well if we speak any word in English”

The respondent says that he was not kicked as hard as the others because he was in the middle, further away from the officers. He reports that they kicked and slapped them in the face, onto their torsos, and generally everywhere on the body.

The officers did not ask for their ages (the respondent is a minor), the only questions they asked were: “Where did you get in the truck? How much money did you give to the boss? Where is your money?” The respondent states that they could not answer these questions, as they were not allowed to speak in English. Otherwise, they would get beaten. While they were still in the squatting position, one of the officers took out a flag from Afghanistan which he was carrying in his bag, and destroyed it, by ripping it apart, in front of him.

After this procedure, one of the officers called a van, which brought the 4 people to another border side. The van was without real windows, it just had two holes with a fence in front, as the respondent described it. The driver was another member of the border police.  The journey by car lasted for about 5-10 minutes, and then the people were left in a forest along the green border.

At the moment of this report, another person of the group was present, while the other two were inside a local refugee camp, as they were the ones beaten harder, so that they needed medical assistance.