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First beaten by a truckdriver, then by the authorities

Date & Time 2021-01-28
Location Bihac, Bosnia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 44.83138955, 15.7626406
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 16 - 25
Group size 6
Countries of origin Afghanistan, Pakistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention photos taken, personal information taken
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 6
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, forcing to undress, destruction of personal belongings, theft of personal belongings
Police involved 6 Croatian police officers wearing black uniforms and masks

At the end of January, the respondent and 5 more people were traveling in a truck that was driving from Serbia through Croatia. The respondent explained that, after spending two nights in this truck, around 1 or 2 am, the driver of the truck stopped in a parking lot near the E70 road leading to Zagreb to go to sleep. The next morning, the driver discovered that the group was in his truck and called the police. The respondent reported that six uniformed men -that he identified as Croatian police officers- arrived, 2 women and 4 men.

The driver reportedly went into the truck and started hitting the respondent as well as the others that were inside. The respondent described that, after this, the authorities hit them using batons for approximately 20 minutes in the parking lot. The respondent claimed that they also took their clothes, bags, money and broke their mobile phones.

According to the interviewee, afterwards, they took the people-on-the-move to a nearby police station where their names were written down and their pictures were taken. Another group of people in transit (2 women and 2 men) were present in the police station. Their stay in the police station was relatively short, it lasted what felt like 30 minutes to the respondent.

The respondent reported that they were then driven in a police vehicle to the Croatian-Bosnian border near Bihac. One by one they were asked to come out of the car and struck with batons. According to the respondent, the uniformed people who hit them this time were wearing black uniforms and black masks. The group was then forced to cross the border back to Bosnia and walked back to Bihac.