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The gas they used was tear gas

Date & Time 2024-07-17
Location few Kilometers north of Tržac / Kordunski Ljeskovac
Reported by Anonymous
Coordinates 45.021728, 15.765241
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved yes
Men involved yes
Age unknown
Group size 27
Countries of origin Afghanistan, Morocco, Senegal, Gambia
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 7
Violence used kicking, exposure to air condition and extreme temperature during car ride, pepper spray, gunshots, destruction of personal belongings, theft of personal belongings, forced into the river
Police involved Seven Croatian officers, with one Van and probably another vehicle. Officers were dressed in black, they had guns, batons, and tear gas spray hanging from their belts. The uniform had no symbols and one of the officers wore a ski mask.

In the afternoon of the 17th of July, a transit group of 27 people from Morocco, Afghanistan, Senegal, and Gambia were apprehended by, who they recognized as police officers. This happened several hours after they crossed the border between Bosnia and Croatia. The transit group was composed of all men and one woman. The respondents are two Senegalese people, a man and a woman. 

The transit group was walking near a road in the surroundings of Cetingrad, where the respondent saw a camera. After a few minutes, they saw a man with a phone in his hands, and a police car passed near the street and they sought shelter in the bushes. After managing to hide, they kept proceeding, and after half an hour the group heard someone shooting guns at their back. 

One of the respondents started running away with the whole group, while the woman crouched in the grass. One transit group member advised them to stop running and surrender.

According to the respondent’s description, there were seven police officers dressed in black, they had guns, batons, and tear gas spray hanging from their belts. The uniform had no symbols and one of the officers wore a ski masks. Four police officers chased the transit group after the shots were fired,  and the other three surprised them from the front.

The other respondent described being seen by the last policeman who, because of his unathletic physique, was walking behind his colleagues. The respondent described raising her hands and the officer directly leading her to where the parked cars were. The rest of the transit group was made to sit on the ground and were first kicked by the officers. Then, the police officers used tear gas on them, with one individual in particular receiving a massive dose of it directly in the eyes. 

As the respondents describe, the transit group was then taken to a ‘base with no offices but only cars and dog cages’. At this point, the police officers confiscated the phones of the entire transit group (except for one member)  and placed them in a bag. The police officers forced the transit group into the trunk of a white van. The interior of the van was described as not having seats, and with some plastic bags used to cover the glass separating the drivers from the trunk. 

The transit group was then driven in the van for about 30 minutes. One of the respondents stated that the temperature in the van was extremely hot “as if the heater was on”. During the transfer, the person who received a massive dose of gas in the eyes “started panicking and screaming that he was going to die”. She tried to calm him down and continued: “Meanwhile, I felt itchy in my eyes and realized that the gas used was tear gas”. A few moments later one member of the transit group started hitting the walls of the van demanding to breathe. After this the van stopped, and one of the officers opened the doors “to give us a few seconds of air” and closed them again without turning off the heating. 

When the van stopped for the second time, the transit group was made to get out. One of the police officers proceeded to take a glove from one of the respondents. He then put it on a cane which he used to cover a camera attached to a tree. The policeman then took the bag of phones, pulled out a phone belonging to one of our respondents, an iPhone Pro 12, and put the rest in the water. The respondent’s phone was taken by the police officer and can no longer be traced. 

Police officers pushed the transit group towards the Korana river which marks the border between Bosnia and Croatia, forcing them to cross it. They were shouting and using sticks to make the transit group enter the water. The pushback location was defined with the help of the transit group member who still had his phone, which allowed us to roughly trace the location to an area a few kilometers north of Tržac.

“The first river we crossed was quite deep and cold with water up to our bellies while the second river we had to cross was less deep,” says one of the respondents. 

One of the respondents describes that one member of the transit group received several wounds and beatings so he had to be brought back with the help of two other people.

After about an hour of walking on an asphalt road, the transit group stopped at a small village where some people gave them food and water. The transit group continued for another 15 minutes and stopped at a gas station in Tržac where the respondents and a few other people looked for a taxi to get back to Bihać.