On the morning of 14 June 2021, at 7:15 am, two people on the move attempting to cross the border from Serbia into Croatia were discovered hiding in a truck, at the Croatian border crossing between Batrovci and Lipovac. The Afghan men were 16 and 18 years old. The respondent described that there were four Croatian border police officers in light blue uniforms at the checkpoint. They forced the men to get out of the truck and reportedly struck them with their batons. The respondent received a blow on his left cheek, which swelled up considerably in consequence.
The officers then took the two people to a room inside the border checkpoint, where they took photos of them and fingerprinted them. The respondent requested asylum, but was struck in response to his question:
“Me speak: ‘I have stay, I have stay’, he said: ‘no stay’ and fight me and fight me and fight me.”
The police officers kept the phone from one of the People on the move and destroyed the phone of the other. They also seized 200 euros from the young man and 16 euros from the minor. Additionally, the officers took away the shoes of one of them. During the whole procedure, there was no translator present, despite their low level of English.
About 40 minutes after they were discovered the Croatian police handed both of them over to Serbian officers. The latter were 2 Serbian border police officers in dark blue uniforms. They took the PoM into a police car and drove them to a village near the border crossing, which is called Batrovci. There, they let the men out of the car and struck them with police batons, fists, and kicks for what felt like 30 minutes to the respondent. Then, the officers told them to go to the nearby camp and left them alone.