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The beating stopped when the interviewee and his friend ran away across the border

Date & Time 2017-09-19
Location Vinkovci, Croatia
Reported by Rigardu
Coordinates 45.02022871, 19.10283724
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station unknown
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved no
Age 28 - 30
Group size 2
Countries of origin Algeria
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved unknown
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), theft of personal belongings
Police involved 3 or more policemen from Croatia

The interviewee and his friend started to walk from Šid, Serbia on September 17th, 2017, at 3 pm. They crossed the Croatian border between Šid and Boksic, Croatia. They walked through two forrest in the area of Boksic and Berak and crossed road 57. On the 18th at 5 am they arrived in Vinkovci and arrived at the train station at 8 am. They couldn’t get on the train because the interviewee’s friend had severe abdominal/intestinal pain.

They were stopped by the Croatian police in a small police car with one female and one male police officer in uniforms, near the train station on the 19th at 2 am.

The interviewee asked in English about a hospital for his friend, and states that the female police officer was really friendly. They didn’t ask for asylum. The police talked on their radio. Then one police van took the interviewee and his friend to Tovarnik, Croatia, from where a police van with three police officers in uniforms took them and transported them to the Serbian-Croatian border near Tovarnik, followed by another police van. They arrived at the border on the 19th at 3am.

At the border, the police officers confiscated their baggage, money and phones, and searched the interviewee and his friend. The interviewee told them about his friend’s illness and that he needed to go to the hospital, but the police didn’t answer. They instead pointed in the direction of the border and said “there’s Serbia”.

The police officers had long batons with handles, and one of them beat the interviewee once on his hand and four times on his his legs. One of them also beat his friend. The beating stopped when the interviewee and his friend ran away across the border and walked back to Šid in two hours.