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“They threw us in the river at 3 in the morning”
On the 18th of November, a group of 40 Egyptians aged between 10 and 50 years old — 12 of them minors — were victims of a violent pushback perpetrated by the Croatian border police. The respondent, a 21-year-old man who had attempted to cross the border and been pushed back 11 times, left Lipa camp on the 15th of November with the group. After crossing into Croatia, they walked approximately 15 km and stayed in an abandoned house for three days. No precise location was provided, as the entire group had their phones destroyed during previous pushbacks and were relying on the smuggler — the only person who still had a phone and knew the route.
Early in the morning of the 18th of November, at around 3 a.m., six masked officers from the same border unit found the group in the abandoned house and beat everyone severely with batons and guns. Shortly afterward, additional vehicles arrived carrying more officers. The group of 40 people was then split among three cars and driven for nearly one kilometer toward the river, back in the direction of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After ordering them to remove their jackets and clothes, the officers divided them into groups of six and threw them, group by group, into what the respondent described as a very wide river. “They caught us, and there were children with us, and they threw us into the river. I helped those children get out. I swear to you, this happened at night and the weather was very cold.”
After this violent encounter, the entire group walked back to Lipa camp without clothes and completely soaked, despite temperatures below 0°C. The respondent showed clear signs of distress from the traumatic experience, particularly from witnessing ten-year-old children being thrown into a river during the coldest hours of the night.
overview
40 people ,
from Egypt,
aged between 10-50.