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Go Jungle, go Jungle, to Montenegro!

Date & Time 2019-06-13
Location Čajniče, Metaljka, Bosnia
Reported by Border Violence Monitoring Network
Coordinates 43.533556, 19.147417
Pushback from Bosnia
Pushback to Montenegro
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 24 - 27
Group size 2
Countries of origin Morocco
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 8
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), theft of personal belongings
Police involved 6 officers from Republika Srpska, 2 in black uniforms, 4 in blue uniforms, 2 montenegrin officers

In the early morning of the 13th of June, two young men from Morocco, 24 and 27 years old rode in a bus to Čajniče (BiH). One of the other passengers called the police shortly before the final destination. The two group-members inferred that the phone call was meant to inform the police about them.

When they later exited the bus, they went to a supermarket to buy something to drink. When they came out, there was one Bosnian police officer waiting for them. The first thing the officer did was to take their phones. He did not even ask the two to hand the phones out to him, or spoke to them, he took both their phones with his hands from their pockets and put them into his own.

The Bosnian officer ordered a second car which came right after the call. In total, five police officers arrived in a large car, two of them wore black uniforms with guns, and three of them wore blue shirts and had a sign to regulate traffic. The respondent identified them as Serb, but the license plate of the car was Bosnian. Two of the officers stepped out of the car and ordered the interviewees to step into the car.

During the ride one of the respondents asked: “Where is my phone?”
Other than laughs, he did not receive a response. Their phones were still with the first officer in front of the supermarket who did not join for the ride.

The two men were driven directly to the Bosnian/Montenegrin border. When they arrived there, the officers took pictures of them and accused them of being smugglers. Then the officers struck them two or three times with batons. Afterwards the officers said to them “Go Jungle, go Jungle, to Montenegro!”
They ordered them to take a road inside the forests, after 2 or 3 km they reached a larger road (R-3) and continued along that one. On this road they met Montenegrin police, who secured the border crossing point in Metaljka (MNE). The Montenegrin police asked them for their papers, money and phones. The two had none of these things and were ordered to go back to Bosnia.

So they went into the jungle again to avoid Montenegrin police. They were not able to navigate their way because they didn’t had phones. Their walk from the border to Pljevlja lasted from 7:00 in the morning to 3:00 pm in the afternoon, 8 hours. “This was very hard and exhausting.”