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Fuck Algerian! Go Bosnia! Don’t come to Croatia!

Date & Time 2019-03-13
Location Maljevac, Croatia
Reported by [Re:]ports Sarajevo
Coordinates 45.203306, 15.793667
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 23 - 31
Group size 3
Countries of origin Algeria
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 6
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), insulting, destruction of personal belongings, reckless driving, cutting up the shoe soles
Police involved 2 officers in black uniform, with hat and military boots, a white IVECO van. Two other ones, with black uniform, 1.90 m height, men, hooded and both of them blue eyes.

The group of three Algerian men (aged between 23-31) left Bihac on March 12, 2019, around 12 pm, walking towards the 12 km far city of Izačić. Once they arrived there, they slept in the woods for a couple of hours. Around 3 am, they continued walking to the 20 km far village of Jazera where they arrived around 11 am. When they stopped at a bus station, two police officers came towards them. The respondent described them:

“Black uniform, with hat and military boots.”

They told them to enter a white IVECO van. The group of three had to stay in the van’s backspace in the darkness. The air conditioner was running and it was very cold. According to the respondent, the driver was changing the speed constantly to make them fall. After a 30-minutes drive, they arrived at the Slunj police station. The officers then asked for their documents:

“Give me papers!”

While they were checking their papers, the three individuals requested asylum. The officer’s answered:

“No asylum. Go Bosnia.”

After they checked their documents, they took all their personal belongings, i.e. tobacco, lighters, money, €250, and mobile phones (one of them a Samsung A5 2017). Once they finished frisking them, they brought the group of three to a room where they had to wait around four hours. They didn’t get food and water, but also didn’t ask for it.

Around 6 pm, two officers entered the room and told the three individuals to follow them. The respondent described them:

“Black uniform, 1.90 m height, man, hooded and both of them blue eyes.”

They were brought again to the white IVECO van and drove for another 30 minutes, again with no light, with cold air conditioner and with changing speed. Around 6.30 pm, the van stopped, and they had to get off one by one. The respondent was the first to get off the van. He described the place:

“It was a forest and there was a river.”

The two officers told him to kneel down and to take off his shoes. When he told them that he had a problem with his feet, they started to hit him, so he took off his shoes and one of them cut up the soles. After, they to hit him with a baton on the feet and all over his body while shouting at him:

“Fuck Algerian! Go Bosnia! Don’t come to Croatia!”

At some point, he was able to get up again and ran away barefoot with his injured feet for around five kilometers until he arrived at Velika Kladusa.

Image demonstrating the extent of the respondent’s foot injuries prior to his interactions with the Croatian police