On Monday, the 2nd Mai 2022, at around 3.30 a.m., a group of 11 people from Afghanistan was prohibited from crossing the border from Bosnia to Croatia.

The respondent described that the group started walking from the Bosnian town of Velika Kladuša at 11 p.m. and arrived at the Bosnian-Croatian border at around 1.30 a.m. Shortly before crossing the border, they were illuminated by a very bright light from the Croatian side of the border (coordinates: 45°09’42.1″N 15°45’48.3″E) which the interviewee attributes to a security station located there. After ten minutes, a white car with blue stripes on the sides and the inscription “Policija” approached on a croatian road nearby to the location of the group.

Thereupon the group decided to move to another place close to the Croatian border (coordinates: 45°10’11.8″N 15°46’03.7″E) and had to cross a small waist-deep river for this. Immediately when the group got closer to the Croatian border a white car arrived with blue stripes on the side and the word “Policija” written on them. Reportedly, 5 people with dark blue uniforms got out of this car. Blinded by the light, the respondent was unable to detect any descriptions on the uniform, the color nevertheless suggests they were Croatian regular police officers.

According to the respondent, the police started to scream “go back” to the group. One of the women expressed her intention to ask for asylum and showed her children. That said, the police officers allegedly started to scream even louder while insulting the group.

“They were screaming louder and said a lot of bad things and said: go back.”

Consequently, the group decided to cancel their attempt to cross the border and went back to Velika Kladuša.