This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
1 man beaten by 6 police officers in Croatia
The main respondent was one of a group of 3 Syrian (aged 17, 18 and 25) men, who report that they walked 15km from Gradiska at 11pm and were caught at 3am on the road.
Location where the pushback took place
The respondent reports that they were met by 6 police officers wearing blue with blue hats and the Croatian flag on their sleeves. They were carrying batons and pistols. They were loaded into a big blue bus, standing in the back. There was room for around 25 people standing in the back. They were driven around 15 minutes back to Gradiska. When they were let out of the bus, the respondent described that guns were pointed at them and one of the group was pushed into the river. Another member of the group (the interviewee) asked for their phone back and got hit in the head with a baton. The 6 policemen then all hit him together, in the face, leg, arms, and back. His nose was broken during this and he was covered in blood. Their phones were taken, as well as their bags, which contained clothes and food. The respondent reports that the officers then forced the group to swim across the river back into Bosnia.
Damage to the respondent’s nose as a result of the beating
Location where the group was pushed back to
Once back in Gradiska, the respondent reports that a taxi offered to take the group to Bihac for free, seeing that they needed medical attention. Once in Bihac, they went to JRS and someone called an ambulance for the man with the broken nose that had been badly beaten. However, the respondent reports that the ambulance threw him out after 1km saying “You don’t need a hospital, you must go to Lipa camp”. After this, he went to Lipa. From Lipa, he was taken to the hospital, where they said his nose was half broken and he needed an operation. He was given an appointment 1 month in the future for the operation, but when the day came, officials at Lipa refused to taken him to the hospital.
medical analysis
Severe beatings on the arms, legs, back and heat. Half broken nose (medically assessed at a hospital - picture attached of nose, which is healed now but you can see that it was broken)
overview
3 people ,
from Syria,
aged 17-25.