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Second try, Second pushback, Second time detained in the cage

Date & Time 2019-07-07
Location Border crossing Klobuk, Bosnia
Reported by Border Violence Monitoring Network
Coordinates 42.712444, 18.549552
Pushback from Bosnia
Pushback to Montenegro
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 25 - 29
Group size 25
Countries of origin Algeria, Sudan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention no translator present, denial of access to toilets, denial of food/water, inhumane detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 4
Violence used insulting
Police involved 3 Bosnian police officers, 2 with a uniform and one in civil clothes, 1 Montenegrin Officer

The following report is the second report of three involving the same group members who were consecutively pushed back from Bosnia to Montenegro. The first report is available here. The pushback involved a group of men from Algeria and one Sudanese men.

The group members tried again on July 7, 2019 to transit towards Bileća (BiH), and arrived in Stolac. Once again, they tried to buy a bus ticket to Mostar (BiH). But at the station, one local person observed them and the respondent believed that they called the police because for racist reasons.

“They looked at my friend from Sudan, because the has no white skin and said: `Police, police!´ A short time after, the police came.”

Three Bosnian police officers came to the scene. Two were wearing Bosnian police uniforms and the respondent believed that there was a third officer wearing civilian clothes. These officers started to question them.

“The police officers said: ‘So you want to go to Sarajevo?’ When I said yes, he said that when I give him the papers of Montenegro, he will take me to Mostar. But I know that they wanted to trick me, because when I give this paper to police, I go to jail.”

Then the police officers forced them into a car and drove them directly to the border crossing Klobuk (BiH). There again they spent a few hours in what the respondent described as a ‘cage,’ where they had sat in their previous transit attempt.

After that, a police officer from Montenegro came to them and asked them about if they have papers from Montenegro. When they said yes and that they were in a camp in Spuž, Montenegro, the police released them from the ‘cage’. The Montenegrin police officer asked them if they have money, and when they said yes, he helped them to get on a bus to Podgorica.

“The first time we gave the money to police and the police stole the money, so we waited long time in the cage. And the second time we spoke directly to the bus driver and we bought a ticket.”