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Eventually, they held the respondent by his shoulder and pushed him into the sewer

Date & Time 2018-05-12
Location Matulji, Croatia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.36456929, 14.32813152
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station unknown
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 16 - 24
Group size 8
Countries of origin Algeria
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 22
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, threatening with guns, forcing to undress, destruction of personal belongings, theft of personal belongings
Police involved 7 Croatian police officers (six male and one female), 15 officers, some wearing black face masks

The group of eight found a house in the forest near Matulji (HRV), after having walked for ten days. They wanted to spend the night there, but at approximately 9.30 pm, seven officers entered the house and asked:

Where do you come from? Where are you going.”

And immediately began to hit the individuals. After this, they took their money:

Give me phone, money, all, all, everything, whatever what.”

In total, €450 were taken and nine phones were either taken or broken. Concerning the respondent, they took €150 from him and two phones.

There were two male officers who were more violent than the others. They were about 45 and 48 years old, one of them was wearing a black balaclava, the other had gray hair. They broke the group’s phones while the other officers monitored the people on the move and continued asking questions. There was also one female officer with shoulder-length, blond hair.

One of the officers was pointing his gun towards the group of eight, in order to make them stand still. Then he ordered the eight to kneel down on their knees and to put their hands behind their heads. They were asked how long they stayed at this house and the respondent answered:

“Six hours.”

One by one, they told the eight of them to stand up. They were then forced to undress completely. The officers then inspected them using a flashlight. Afterwards they were allowed to dress again, but had to stand in the same position for approximately three hours before being able to leave the room. To make them enter a white van, the officers grabbed them by their coats. The respondent supposed that the van was a Mercedes, but wasn’t sure. The van’s backspace was windowless and the air conditioning was turned on cold during the drive.

After a three-hour drive, they arrived at the Bosnian-Croatian border, close to Velika Kladuša (BIH). They stopped next to a forest and a sewer, somewhere behind the official border official check point of Velika Kladuša.

Near the place where was the protest a few months ago.”

There were two vans at this location: one on the edge of the road leading to the check point, and one on the field were the group were transported into.

There, 15 officers were waiting for them, standing just outside of the van. Some wore black balaclavas, some didn’t. When they parked the van, the eight of them were thrown out of the van one by one. The officers kicked them and beat them with batons. Both groups of officers, with and without balaclavas, beat the eight of them, however the covered ones beat more and stronger. They also insulted them:

Picko matre!”

Fuck you!”

Go, go Bosnia!”

Eventually, they held the respondent by his shoulder and pushed him into the sewer. Throughout, the officers were laughing, making fun of the eight of them.

When the respondent went out of the sewer, he ran away, took off his clothes, and kept running in underwear until the city center of Velika Kladuša. He arrived there around 3 am with injuries on both feet and one knee.

The eight of them didn’t express their wish for claiming asylum.