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They were just saying to us: “Fuck you Muslim, fuck your brother, fuck your mother"

Date & Time 2018-10-21
Location Near Šturlić, Croatia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.072177, 15.760576
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 16 - 18
Group size 2
Countries of origin Iraq
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 2
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, insulting, theft of personal belongings, reckless driving
Police involved 2 Croatian police officers in dark blue uniforms

The two boys walked from Velika Kladuša (Bosnia) to a remote forest in Croatia, about 10 km far away from the Bosnian border, from where they were supposed to be picked up by a people smuggler. The smuggler promised the boys to take them to Slovenia, from where they would have continued in a different car to Italy. They felt there was no legal chance for them to reach asylum in Europe, and for this reason they decided to pay 2.500 Euros to a “taxi driver” who would help them. They reached the arranged point around 6 pm, and were waiting for a taxi, but were detected by two tall police officers in dark blue uniforms, one of whom is described as having grey hair. When the police saw them, they started verbally and physically attacking them:

“They were just saying to us: “Fuck you Muslim, fuck your brother, fuck your mother, just shouting at us and after beating us”.

One of them told the police that he was 16 years old, but the officers did not pay attention to this and kept beating him by kicks and punches. Then, the police stole two phones from the boys that they had bought before their journey, one for 200 Euros. They asked the officers, whether they could apply for asylum in Croatia, but the police responded to them that in Croatia, there was no asylum for them and kicked one of the boys into the legs.

Following the physical attack, the boys were transported by a car directly to the Bosnian border for their deportation. The journey took about 30 minutes, and there were the only ones inside. The car was driving very fast and was stopping occasionally, so that they were falling from one side to another. When they arrived at the border of Croatia with Bosnia, close to Sturlic (BiH), the police told them to get off the car, one by one, and again, physically attacked them while shouting at them to go back to Bosnia:

„They hit me into my head by a baton. They also hit me on my leg although I told them that I had a scar there. They were then hitting me into my neck and my hand [showing me swollen hand and bruise on the neck]. They also kicked into my friend’s mouth”.

The boys then walked by foot to the makeshift camp in Velika Kladuša and arrived there around 4am. They lost their last money that they had paid to the smuggler and got stranded for longer time in the Bosnian transit, with no legal way forward and no adequate accommodation before the winter in Bosnia starts.

Both kept visible injuries from the beating. The older had several bruises around his body and swollen right hand caused by kicks, pushes and attacks by batons. The underaged boy had a swollen mouth caused by several kicks into his face.  The older one had several bruises around his body and a swollen right hand caused by kicks, pushes and attacks by batons.