“If they are not going to give us water, they won’t give us asylum”

According to him it was in this area, near the town, that from a distance they noticed a group of people, again described as wearing uniforms usually worn by the “Croatian Border Police”, detaining a group of approximately 40 individuals. The respondent states that this group consisted of families and children. He claims that he saw the police stealing the phones and other belongings from the individuals in that group. He recalls witnessing many of these individuals being beaten by police officers with batons and the police using police dogs to intimidate them. According to the respondent, at this point, he and the other 3 individuals he was traveling with decided to go back into the forest to hide and find another path. He reports that along with the 3 other individuals they arrived in Glina to take a bus at 7:20 a.m. that would arrive in Zagreb. The respondent reports that after he was overcharged 25 euros for the bus ticket, which is supposed to cost 5 euros, some uniformed men showed up. He reports that at the moment he paid for the bus ticket, two men in civilian clothes, but described as being undercover police officers, appeared inside the bus and started demanding, “documents, documents, documents”. The respondent states that at the moment of the encounter with police officers he asked to be taken to the camp in Zagreb in order to claim asylum, but, according to him, the only reply he got was “no” by the police officers. According to the respondent, the police officers proceeded to take the 4 individuals into a vehicle described as being a “police car” and to drive them to a room inside a building that was near the police station in Glina but not inside the police station. The respondent describes this room looking like one of the rooms in Lipa Camp, he says, “it was a prison cell”. According to him, the room was filled with 20 individuals, including him and the other 3 individuals he was traveling with. He reports that inside this room there were no toilets. In addition, he recalls asking multiple times for food and water to the officers, but they repeatedly said “no”. He recalls turning to the other men in the room saying, “if they are not going to give us water, they won’t give us asylum”. According to him, they were kept for about 5 hours in this room with no food, water, or access to a toilet. In addition, he reports that when he arrived in this room, his shoes, clothes, backpack, powerbank, and phone were all taken from him. The respondent states that, “they don’t have any other work to do, except to catch migrants”. After 5 hours waiting in the room, the respondent claims that 7 men wearing uniforms (different from the ones who detained him at the bus station) took him along with 9 other people inside 4 vehicles described as “Police vans” and drove them to the forest at the border between Croatia and Bosnia. The respondent reports that once there, the police officers forced the group to line up in a straight line once they exited the police vehicles. According to him, two people were not standing directly straight with the other, they were standing a little in front of the line, making it not straight. He reports that these two individuals were then beaten by police officers with batons on their legs and feet to force them to stand in a straight line with the others. According to him the police officers proceeded to gather all the items they collected from the individuals in the room in Glina and piled them on the ground. He reports that once the pile of clothing, phones, backpacks were all put together, the police officers set it on fire. According to the respondent, while they were burning everything, the police forced the group of people to go on a gravel road across the border into Bosnia, leaving everything they had burned behind them. The respondent claims that “they burnt it so we don’t return”.