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"It was not a camp, transit camps do not look like that, it was a prison"

Date & Time 2021-05-10
Location Izacic border
Reported by Border Violence Monitoring Network
Coordinates 44.8784833, 15.7927299
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 35 - 35
Group size 5
Countries of origin Afghanistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention detention, personal information taken, papers signed, no translator present, forced to pay fee
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved more than 30 police officers
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), pushing people to the ground, insulting, forcing to undress, theft of personal belongings, reckless driving
Police involved Croatian police officers in dark blu uniform, police officers in light blu uniform, some police officers wearing civilians clothes, one Bosnian police officers, 2 deportation vans and 2 normal white vans

On 6 September the respondent with his wife and three children started to move again from Sarajevo to try to cross the Croatian border relying on a smuggler who drove them in a car. After crossing the river that separates the border with a boat, they walked through Croatian territory for three hours, after which the smuggler picked them up but after an hour of driving the car was stopped by Croatian police (at 3.30 am on 7 September) who first beat the smuggler – respondent states that the man was vomiting blood because of the beatings – and then put the driver and the family on the move in a deportation van and they were taken to a police station where they stayed for an hour and a half. At the police station, their phones were confiscated and then the police asked them questions about how they crossed the border. At this police station, the respondent states that there were 5/6 police officers – some of them wore blue uniforms and others were in civilian clothes – who gave the family water, after about 4 hours they were taken to a second police station which was 20 minutes by car from the previous one and, according to the documents shown by the respondent, it was the station in Slavonski Brod.