On the 18th of September, a group of 27 Pakistani people was chain-pushed back from Slovenia to Bosnia Herzegovina. During their pushback, they did not experience physical violence, but their right to ask for asylum was not respected by Slovenian policemen. In the group were also two minors.

The respondent started his journey on the 15th of September; he took a bus from Bihać (BiH) at 5 pm and he arrived in Banja Luka (BiH) at 8 pm. He and the other people of the group crossed the border into Croatia from there. They first took road 47 and after that the E70. When they were walking they always stayed in the jungle. As the respondent claims, the condition inside the jungle was really bad, and they were really afraid of the animals they encountered.

As the respondent says, the group followed the E70 road and managed to cross the Slovenian border; they changed the road but unluckily, just one hour after crossing the Slovenian border, at 7 in the evening, they were caught by Slovenian police.

“These policemen were good with us. They gave us some food and water; we didn’t run, so that’s why they were kind.”

The respondent remembers the words of one policeman:

“He said that if we’d walk another hour, he could give us Slovenian documents; but we were too close to the border, so the police couldn’t do much. I know this is not true, they have to give asylum. My life wasn’t safe in Pakistan, I need asylum in Europe.”

After having been caught, the respondent states that the 3 policemen drove the 27 people for an hour and delivered them to the Croatian border police. There were 10 policemen, two of them charged the people in a van and brought them to a camp in Zagreb.

The respondent affirms that he and the other people stayed two nights inside the camp; they were basically only sleeping and eating.

“At the entrance, they took our phones, money, and chargers, promising they would give them back. But at the end, we didn’t receive anything back“.

On the 20th of September, the group left the camp and Croatian police drove them to the Bosnian border, close to Velika Kladuša, BiH.  They drove the 27 people inside one single van and the driver of the vehicle was driving recklessly for 3 hours.

One policeman took pictures of the respondent and, at the end of the drove, the people were let out from the van while policemen were shouting “now run, picku mater“.

The respondent stayed in a camp in Velika Kladuša, and then walked back to Lipa, where he arrived on the 22nd.

“This time, I didn’t specifically ask for asylum in Croatia. I know how it works. I asked already many times before, one lawyer promised that he’s give me documents. But it wasn’t true. They don’t care about giving asylum.”