The respondent is a Syrian man, aged 27, who was traveling together with 47 people from Syria. Part of the group were also six minors aged around 14 years old. The group crossed from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia on the night of the 10th December 2023.

Soon after crossing the border with Croatia, on the morning of the 11th of December 2023 the group was apprehended by six individuals that wore a uniform consisting of blue jackets and blue pants, resembling the uniforms of Croatian border police officers. The respondent says that the men in the uniform started using a teaser gun to stop and scare them, while beating everyone with batons, kicks and punches. The men in the blue uniform forced the respondent and the rest of the group to lay face to the ground, keeping on beating them harshly. They then stole almost all the phones owned by the people in the group, destroying part of them and taking the others, and they took all their money.

The respondent and the rest of the group were then forced to get on two vans and one car and were all brought to a police station nearby, where they were left without access to food and water and without the chance to go to the toilet. After several hours, two other men wearing a blue uniform forced them to signs some papers which were not translated to them and screamed that the children present in the group were lying and were over 18 years old.

The group was then forced again inside the vehicles and were brought near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Some people were pushed into a nearby river and everyone was pushed back to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

They were left in a forest area and walked back to Bihać in Bosnia and Herzegovina.