The respondent is a Moroccan man, 22 years old, that was traveling with other 10 man all from Morocco.

The respondent reported that, the 16th October early morning, after crossing the border the transit group walked about 40 kilometers and than they were apprehended near a bridge by a Croatian police car. The transit group did not put up any resistance and the police did not do violence to them. After that, the respondent stated that they were handed over to four policemen wearing black balaclava masks over their faces. These policemen put them into a white van, completely closed, with no windows, no ventilation and no lighting. The situation inside was disastrous.

When they let them out of the van, it was around 1o am, it was raining and in front of the back door of the van there was a masked policeman beating every person who got out of the van. Outside of the van, there were in total 4 policemen and one dog, that the respondent claimed that scared them more than the policemen. Than, the authorities told the transit group to take their things with them and made them line up neatly, one after the other. They started hitting them with an iron stick, about two or more times per person, then the officers ordered them to get on their knees and started slapping them. They told them: ‘Never come back to Croatia’.

The respondent reported that authorities took off all their clothes except their underwear, they burnt all their clothes, their mobile phones, their money and everything else they had. Then the police threw them into the river, beating and kicking them.