5 days in the police cell

According to him, they were apprehended by two men wearing official uniforms, described as those usually worn by the “Croatian Police”, and were detained and placed in an white van, described as being the usual unmarked police van used to push back people on the move. The respondent reports that the police officers took the 15 individuals to a place described as being a “police station”. According to him, once they arrived at the police station, they were told to sit down, while the police officers did not talk to them. The respondent states that one of the individuals from the transit group who was from Uganda, requested to be taken to the camp in Zagreb in order to claim asylum, but the police officer replied by saying, “sit down”, ignoring his request. According to the respondent, while at the police station, the police officers searched through the belongings and backpacks of the members in the transit group. He reports that the police officers took all the money that the group had with them, in addition, the respondent claims that the police took the power banks and phones as well. The respondent states that he and the other 14 people sat at the police station for 30 minutes before being placed within a prison cell. The respondent claims that they were held and detained in this prison cell for 5 days, they were given food and water, however, within these 5 days the police officers at the detention centre did not communicate with them at all, and even as they tried to communicate with them to understand what was happening, no one was explaining anything to them, according to the respondent. The respondent recalls trying to ask the police officers if they would be sent back to Bosnia, but he received no reply. After the fifth day, according to him, the group was forced to sign a document. The interlocutor states that they did not understand what they were signing, because the document they were made to sign was only in Serbo-Croatian. The respondent states that the police didn’t offer any mean of translation for the document. According to him all the members within the transit group were forced to sign this document to be allowed to leave the cell. The respondent reports that once they all had signed the document, they were able to get back their phones, but not the money or power banks. Then, according to the respondent, the group was driven by van to the Bosnian border. He reports that when they arrived at the Bosnian border they were transferred to some uniformed people described as “Bosnian Police” and forced inside a vehicle described as a police van. According to the respondent the group was driven then to the Lipa Camp, the transit camp near Bihac.