The respondent is a 29-year-old man from Morocco. He was traveling with 8 other people, aged 18-30 years old through Croatia. Around 5 PM CET on January 14th, 2024 the group was caught in Slunj (HR) by a group of three men wearing a dark uniform and a balaclava, resembling the clothes worn by the Croatian special police officers.
These three men stopped the group and started to beat the Moroccan men with batons, and by punching and kicking them. One of the men with the balaclava forced the respondent to remove his shoes, soaked them in the river, and gave him back forcing him to wear them. All the members of the group had to give their phones to the three men, who proceeded to break them with their batons.
The group was then brought to a place where a white van and a white car with a light blue band were parked and they were forced to get inside of them. The group was transported to a police station, where the officers had taken their fingerprints. The respondent states that they stayed in the police station for around 4 hours, without the chance to go to the toilet or access to food or water. They were then forced back in the cars and brought to the border with Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The group was pushed back to BiH at around 11 PM CET of the same day and walked back to Bihac.