This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
The police burned all their clothes and backpacks in front of the group
The main respondent is a 26-year-old man from Morocco. He reports that on Monday 30th of April 2024, he was apprehended with 4 other people at the Croatian village of Glina (Sisak-Moslavina) and was pushed back to Bosnia in the area of Velika Kladuša. The group was composed of 5 Moroccan nationals, all men between 23 and 27 years old. The group left from camp Lipa at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 28th of April and took a taxi. From Lipa they drove 1 hours and 15 min to Velika Kladuša. The group started walking at 12 a.m. and walked for 2 days inside the forest. After some hours of walking, they slept on the ground of the forest and started walking again in the day. The group walked during the day and slept in the night on the ground in the forest. Inside the forest the respondent described seeing a drone with a thermal imaging camera which flew over their heads. After the second day of walking the group finished their food and water and had to walk out of the forest and arrived on a road. After the group had been walking on the road for some time, a police car came at around 8 a.m. and stopped the group. The respondent described the police car as a blue van, which he could identify after seeing the image galleries as a Citroen Jumper Van 35 Blue HDI 160, which is used as sophisticated mobile station for tracking and apprehension of transit groups. In the first car there were 6 policemen which the respondent described as wearing dark blue uniforms, with matching colours for shirts and trousers, and a Croatian flag on the upper sleeve. He could identify them after seeing the image galleries as Croatian border police. Some time later a second police car arrived, the respondent described it as a big white van with police written on the side and with no windows in the back. After showing him the image galleries, he could identify the vehicle as a Croatian prisoner transport van with no windows in the back and protective grill and gratings on front and side windows, front and rear lights. In the second car there were 2 policemen which the respondent described as wearing blue uniforms trousers, with a light blue T-shirt and a Croatian flag on the upper sleeve. He could identify them after seeing the image galleries also as Croatian border police.
After the police arrived, the policemen took out their weapons and the group had to sit down on the ground of the street. They had to handover all their money, backpacks, sleeping bags, phones, lighters and clothes. The police burned all their clothes and backpacks in front of the group. The responded asked to apply for asylum in Croatia, but the police only said that this is not possible. The police brought the group of 5 people into the white van. Another man from Turkey was already in the car. The policemen drove for 1 hour back to the border. The respondent describes driving as very abrupt and harsh without consideration for the people in the car. The police let the group out of the car at around 10 a.m. in the middle of the forest. They took out their guns and shot several times in the air, pointed in a direction in the forest and said “there is Bosnia, go, go, go”. After some of the group hesitated to leave, the police beat one person in the group with a baton.
The respondent couldn’t identify the precise location of the pushback, but said that the group walked back through the forest for 1 hour until they arrived in Velika Kladuša. Once there, they took a bus back to Bihac. Once arrived in Bihac at the bus station the group took a taxi back to Lipa camp.
overview
5 people ,
from Morocco,
aged 23-27 years old.