The authorities arrested the respondent together with the group of 23 people on the move at around 3 am. They were about three hours away from Zagreb, on a road coming from the Serbian-Croatian border. The group had been traveling in vehicles which had picked them up after two days of walking. Shortly after entering the vehicles, the authorities stopped the group and shortly after they transported them with two vehicles to a police station near the Serbian border. Eight of them had to enter the first vehicle, the rest was driven with the second one.
At the police station, the officers asked the group who spoke English to which the respondent raised his hand. He was asked where he was from and declared Afghanistan.
“We come from a war country. I want to come Europe, Europe has humanity. I heard Europe has humanity but if Croatia is doing this kind of acting so other country will do too.”
At the police station, the respondent was the only one being locked in a cell. While locked inside, he asked several times to use the toilet, but the police denied him this. Additionally, he asked if the windows could be opened to get some fresh air, to which the officers told him:
“Stop, sleep.”
He was kept in custody for three days, being released on the evening of the third day. During those days, they took the group’s photos, and wrote down their names, country of origin of the respondent, as well as his family name and date of birth. As a date of birth he wrote 2002, but one of the officers changed it to 2000. He complained about this procedure:
“You made a crime, I’m under 18 and you catch me and you wrote 2000”.
Then the officers closed the file and told him he was free. He asked for asylum, but was told:
“No stay here, there is no paper.”
The location of the push-back is unknown, but the respondent described there being “a big stone”. They were kicked before they left.