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‘I’m a person, why like this?’ 

Date & Time 2019-11-05
Location Tovarnik train station, Croatia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.15783236, 19.14487839
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 35 - 35
Group size 1
Countries of origin Tunisia
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 6
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, pushing people to the ground, insulting, destruction of personal belongings
Police involved 6 Croatian regular officers (5 with hood) , 1 police car

A 35-year-old man from Tunisia reports having left on his first game the 11th of May, from the train station in Šid (SRB) at around midnight. He walked about 20 kilometres, until he reached the train station in Tovarnik, Croatia. He was soon arrested at this location, at sometime between 5:00 and 6:00 am, by a group of six Croatian police officers dressed in what were described as municipal uniforms The officers arrived in a vehicle, five of them were described as wearing a hood.

They asked in English where he was from that he said Tunisia. He said also that he had previously been living in Germany and asked for asylum. The police officers refused, saying: ‘no, you are shit.’

The officers apprehended him and threw his bags and mobile phone away into a nearby river. They forced him onto the ground and hit him several times with a baton and kicked him.

The respondent asks:

‘I’m a person, why like this?’ 

After being beaten by the police, the respondent arrived back to Šid at around 12:00 a.m., after walking for six hours.

During the respondent’s interaction with the interviewer, he had several marks on his face, and the long mark of a stick hit on his abdomen.