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seven police in one-line wait, two persons go out, two by two, all fighting, everything they fight

Date & Time 2019-07-06
Location 85 kilometers away from Velika Kladusa
Reported by Border Violence Monitoring Network
Coordinates 45.38887987, 14.75384579
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 20 - 35
Group size 11
Countries of origin Afghanistan, Pakistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention photos taken, personal information taken, papers signed, no translator present
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 13
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), theft of personal belongings
Police involved 4 croatian special forces , 2 croatian policemen wearing plain clothes, 7 croatian police

The group of 11 people left Bosnia on foot. After walking for several days through Croatia, they approached the Slovenian border. On June 7th, approximately 25 km away from the border (approximate location marked on the map below), they were apprehended by six Croatian policemen. Four of the officer wore green uniform green which were described by the respondents as “commandos”. The other two officer were described as wearing plain clothes.

“They were waiting, they say ‘stop!’, they were strong “

The officer made the group wait and called another team of officer to come over to take the group.

The group waited half an hour before being taken in a van described as a windowless police van: white with the blue stripes on the sides. They were then driven to a police station approximately 15 to 20 minutes away. The van was parked in the yard of the station and the group-members were made to exit one by one into the station. Inside, the respondent had to answer what his name, his father name, his age and nationality was. Then, the group-members had their pictures taken with a panel, which had his name and surname written on it.

“One by one we go out of the van, we answer question and go back to the van. Too much hot in the van […] one Pakistani smoked inside van”

Some of the group-members asked to go to the toilet, however the officers refused. Otherwise, the group-members were provided water when asked. They waited in the van for two and a half hours for everyone to be done with the processing. After everyone answered the questions, they left again. The people driving the van were the same as those from the police station. While they were driving towards the Bosnian border, the car stopped frequently.

“Drive 15 to 20 minutes, then wait, wait 5,6 minutes, then go again. Drive like this too much”

The respondent described being driven approximately four to five hours and arriving to the Bosnian-Croatian border at night time.

“Seven police in one-line wait, two persons go out, two by two, all fighting, everything they fight”

According to the respondent, the seven policemen were waiting at the border for them to arrive. They wore uniforms comprised of blue, short-sleeve shirtsand dark trousers. The group had to exit the van two-by-two and had to run along the line to a bridge representing the border between Croatia and BiH. During this process, they were struck by the batons of the seven police officers. They found their phones, but the screens were broken.

They walked back to Velika Kladuša which was the closest city from where they were pushed back.