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One day of detention. The policemen lied to us and said: ‘We can bring you to Zagreb!’
The main respondent is a 36-year-old man from Iran. He reports that on Tuesday 2nd of May 2024 he was apprehended with 11 other people at the Croatian village of Novska and was pushed back to Bosnia in the area of Stabanža (municipality of Velika Kladuša). The group was composed by 4 women and 8 men, including 2 minors of 12 and 14 years old. There where nationals of Cambodia, Afghanistan, Turkey and Iran. The age range is between 12 and 50 years old. The group left the city of Sarajevo by taxi at 7 p.m. on the 1st of May and reached the border city of Bosanska Gradiška after 3 or 4 hours of ride. Once there, already at night time the group walked for 2 hours and reached the Sava river, which represents the border between Croatia and Bosnia. At that place some smugglers were waiting for them and helped them cross the river with a small boat. Once the whole group had crossed the river the smugglers came back to the Bosnian side and told them where to continue their walk in Croatia. The group started walking in the forest and after 4 to 5 hours they finally reached a road, when it was already morning time. At around 11 a.m. a car stopped them on the road. The respondent described it as a personal/civil black car, without any sign of police on the side. One police officer with uniform was inside the vehicle with a German Shepherd dog. The respondent described the uniform as dark grey with a Croatian flag patch. This policeman called for a backup, and a second car came, this time of white colour and with police sign on the sides and Croatian flag logo, and with two police officers described as wearing black uniforms. After half an hour a police van came as well, described as white without any sign or logo, with windows on the back covered in foil and driven by two more police officers wearing black uniforms. Once shown the image galleries, the respondent could identify the second white vehicle as a Croatian Border Police patrol car and the van as similar to one of the vans used for prisoner transport by the Croatian Border police with protective grills. When it comes to the uniforms, the respondent identified among the image galleries the first police men as part of Croatian Regular Police and the other 4 ones as Croatian Border Police officers.
At the moment of apprehension, the group was asked to sit and to handover their phones, but they initially refused to do so, as they feared the police would steal them. The group was then taken inside the van, which was described as dark inside and with fastening for chains and handcuffs on the ground. The whole group of 12 people had to stay inside the same van, with little space for each. After a 15-minute ride the group was taken into a police station. Once inside the group was immediately searched by the officers and they had to handout all their personal belongings. After the respondent gave his phone, one of the police officers started to ask aggressively the group to handout their phones. One woman of the group, scared of his reaction, decided to handover her phone to a policewoman, who searched her in another room. The reaction was brutal, since the police woman caught her hair and punched her in the face. While at the police station the group wasn’t asked any personal information, not event their names. No fingerprints were taken, and no documents were signed. Since no translator was present, the respondent had to translate a short conversation between the police officers and the 2 minors. The group was then brought inside the prison cells of the police station. The group had to stay in the cell for around 20 hours and the only food given for an entire day was some bread, a slice of cheese and water. According to the locations shown by the respondent it can be assumed that it was the Border Police Station of Novska. On the following morning at around 8 a.m., the police officers came and told them ‘We can bring you to Zagreb!’. The group was then taken inside the same van of the previous day and taken instead to the border with Bosnia. The ride took around 4 to 5 hours, and the respondent described it as dangerous and traumatic. There was not enough space for everybody and it was difficult to breathe, it was complete dark inside. Moreover the driving was reckless, with people being pushed from side to side. The policemen driving were laughing and talking. The respondent said: ‘They didn’t think about people in the back of the van. We were dying in there’. Once arrived at the border the group found four more police van with police signs on the side, with around 30 people more waiting on the border. All of them, a group of around 40 people, were then surrounded by the police officers, who the respondent could total as around 15. The group was then given back their phones, but the police officers kept other personal belongings as power banks, headphones and razors. The group was then forced to cross the border and enter Bosnia again.
overview
12 people ,
from Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and Cambodia,
aged 12-50 years old.