'I saw my friend get hit on the head and he was going to die. These people have no mercy.'
| 03.10.2025 | location unknown | Anonymous | 44.8992765, 15.7404919 | Croatia | Bosnia | no | no | yes | yes | no | no | yes | 8 - 60 | 50 | 3 | destruction of personal belongings, Beating (with batons/hands/other), gunshots, pushing people into the car, Confiscation of devices | <p>3 Croatian police officers wearing gray-blue uniforms with 'police' written on the back, wearing guns and batons, spoke Croatian to each other. They drove a white and yellow car. </p> |
The respondent is 22 years old and is from Egypt. The respondent was part of a transit group that consisted of around 50 people, including men, women, children, and the elderly. The transit group was pushed back from Croatia to Bosnia on Friday, the 3rd of October 2025, at 7 pm.
The respondent reported that, once they were in Croatia, the group walked from 5 am to 7 pm from Bihać. They were apprehended by 3 men wearing grey-blue uniforms with 'police' written on the back. The respondent identified them as Croatian police because they were driving a blue and yellow car, had guns and batons, spoke Croatian to each other, on top of wearing a uniform described above.
Upon arrival, the police shot at the group. The respondent said: 'The three men opened fire on all of us. We were very scared.' The respondent explained that the police took pictures of them and started beating the group with batons/long sticks. He noted: 'They hit us very violently.' The respondent was severely injured during the beating. He was hit 10 times with the baton, which left his left arm with a bone fracture. The respondent reported that the police confiscated all of their bags and phones. The phones were all destroyed. The respondent added that during the beating, the police officers were laughing and mocking them.
'I saw my friend get hit on the head, and he was going to die. These people have no mercy.'
After ten minutes, three large cars and a small car arrived. The transit group was taken away without any of their belongings. The respondent recalls they were driven 'a long distance'. The group was left in the forest on the top of a mountain without any food, water, devices, or a compass to help them go back to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The respondent was unsure of any exact location. He explained that he does not remember the location because of the extreme fatigue from the long walk and the harsh weather conditions: 'We were tired from walking and all our clothes were wet, and the weather was very cold'. But he remembers seeing small houses and hearing cars because it was near a highway.