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For the third time a group of political refugees from Sierra Leone was pushed back from Croatia to BiH
On the night of 26th of October 2025, a group of 11 people left Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to cross the Croatian border and seek safety in the European Union. There were four men from Sierra Leone and one from Somalia in the age of 20-34; the rest of people’s nationalities were not known to our interviewee, who was a 23-years old man from Sierra Leone. After crossing the border, they slept in the forest and boarded the Split-Zagreb train in the morning. Our interviewee could not remember the name of the station, but it might be Vrhovine.
Plaški train station; possible location where the group was apprehended.
At the next station, possibly Plaški, two armed Croatian police officers got on the train, and they ordered the group to get off the train. They ordered the people to get down on the ground and threatened to shoot them if they move. Then they boarded the people in the back of a marked police van with no windows or seats in the back and brought them to a police station. At the police station, everyone was forced to undress and was searched; the clothes were returned to the people. The group had two power banks, which were confiscated. They were able to keep the one phone they had with them.
Then the group of 10 (one person might have escaped) was put in a larger van, brought to the BiH border. It took the group two hours to reach the nearest shop. The shop gave them a taxi number and helped them to call the taxi. It took them about one hour by car to reach Bihać. This was the third time the group of political refugees from Sierra Leone was pushed back from Croatia to BiH.
overview
11 people ,
from Sierra Leone and Somalia,
aged between 20-34.