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They want to hate you

Date & Time 2021-10-11
Location Golubic, Croatia
Reported by Aid Brigade Sarajevo
Coordinates 44.12248456, 16.32970092
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 20 - 30
Group size 4
Countries of origin Iran
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved unknown
Violence used insulting, destruction of personal belongings, theft of personal belongings, reckless driving
Police involved Croatian police, white vans with police written on the side in blue. Police dressed all in black including balakalvas covering their face, no badge.

This testimony is a report of a pushback directly from a person-on-the-move who explains their experience:

“We took a taxi from Sarajevo to the border with Croatia. We then walked for 4-5 hours to Knin in Croatia, near where we were found by police behind trees in the mountains. They told us to sit down and then took all our belongings, phones, shoes and jackets from us. We were put in the police van and our stuff was left in the forest. These people, the police in Croatia, see you and they want to hate you. They were dressed all in black and their faces were covered with balaclavas. The police didn’t have badges on their clothes but when they got back into the van to drive us they put their badges back on. We were taken to a place, maybe 40km away back over the border in Bosnia. We walked for 3 days with no shoes or belongings back to Drvar. In Drvar we were seen by police and told to leave the city, but it was too far to walk to Bihac so we went to the police station. Here they took us in a van 10km away. No one helped us except one police officer after we asked for IOM. We were told to go to a restaurant and IOM would come. We waited 5 hours, then IOM came and took us to Lipa camp. We the went to Bihac and took a bus back to Sarajevo. Our 2 friends we tried to cross the border with are still in Lipa camp.

The bus back to Sarajevo had 48 seats but 70 people in it, people sitting and standing in the aisle. Everyone was a migrant, maybe 1 or 2 Bosnians. They are special buses for migrants, every day at 11pm they go to Sarajevo but always with too many people. Someone started smoking and people asked the driver to open a window for ventilation. The driver came and opened the back doors where 2 men were sitting on the steps. It was really dangerous, we were on mountain roads and the driver was going very fast. The men at the back nearly fell out of the bus. The driver came and shouted you should jump, jump while laughing”.