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“I watched my brother drown in front of me”
A group of 10 people left Lipa camp in Bosnia by foot on the 15th of November. The group was composed of multiple nationalities including 3 Sudanese young men, one of which is our respondent. The three men are two brothers and a cousin travelling together, their ages are 20, 27 and 32. The group manages to cross Croatia and finally reaches the border with Slovenia where they have to cross a river. The respondent and some people around him say that nearly everyone has to cross that river if they want to get into Slovenia by foot. It’s November the temperatures have dropped close to zero and most people do not know how to swim. Crossing that river is not a choice but more like an obligation due to the violent police pushbacks and Frontex monitoring of borders. This being said, the group approaches to river and the 27 year old Sudanese man is the first to attempt. The respondent, the brother, explains that all he heard was his brother scream and go under pulled by the freezing and fast water of the Kolpa River. The group watched this tragic event, yet they could not do anything if not try to find another way to cross and try to continue to Slovenia.
The drowning location is in Kolpa River between Duga Resa County in Croatia, and Črnomelj County in Slovenia, close to a Slovenian highway
After having excluded the river crossing, the grieving and discouraged group attempts to cross from a bridge nearby. As expected, the Croatian police intercepts them. The respondent identifies the Croatian police by explaining their blue uniform with the Croatian flag on their shoulder. The officers beat them with batons and “sticks”, confiscating their phones before forcefully moving everyone in a van and driving back to the Croatian-Bosnian border.
This leaves the grieving brother and cousin together with the rest of the group no other option than to go back to Lipa transit camp by foot and destroyed by grief, despair and beaten. Their only way to denounce what happened is through activists and volunteers because no authorities or Lipa Camp staff cares enough to listen or act. Drowning in a river is the direct consequence of violent actions put into practice by EU state police officers that create the conditions for people on the move to have to cross dangerous rivers like the Kolpa River.
overview
10 people ,
from Sudan and others,
aged 20 to 33.