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Give us 50 euros, than we will leave you, if you don't, you will spend five nights in jail

Date & Time 2020-11-11
Location Border crossing Sot, Croatia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.1724909, 19.34805332
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 15 - 18
Group size 4
Countries of origin Afghanistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 2 or 3
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, theft of personal belongings
Police involved 2 or 3 Croatian police officers, black uniforms, one black police van

In the night of the 11th of November, four young men, including the respondent, attempted crossing the border between Serbia and Croatia whilst being hidden in a truck. At the Batrovci border crossing point, the truckdriver was described to have opened his truck and saw the four men and asked them to come out of the truck.

Subsequently, two or three Croatian policemen wearing black uniforms approached them and ordered the group out of the van, during which time they were reported to have said: “Give us 50 euros, than we will leave you, if you don’t, you will spend 5 nights in jail”.

Not being able to pay this money to the authorities, the four men were led towards a black police van and had to wait for a long time. After this, officers from the station drove them approximately 20 km up the Serbian-Croatian border to the border crossing point outside of the Serbia village of Sot near Camp Principovac. The waiting time and the driving time together felt very long. The respondent describes this time being between five and eight hours.

The van finally arrived there, at a spot where no one could see them, at which point the officers took the money the men had on them as well as their mobile phones. After this, the respondent described that there was a physical exchanged between the four men and the authorities for a time, between 5 and 10 minutes. The authorities used their hands and feet to fight as well as batons. After this fight, the four young men walked back to Šid.