10

from Croatia to Bosnia,

The main respondent is a 30-year-old man from Pakistan. He reports that on Monday 1st of April 2024 he was apprehended with 11 other people at the Croatian village of Ćuić Brdo (Rakovica city) and was pushed back to Bosnia in a forest near Hadžin Potok. The group was composed of 12 nationals of Pakistan and India, 3 women and 9 men, all between 20 and 40 years old. The group left Bihac on the 31st of March at 4-5 p.m. and took a taxi to the border, where, still in Bosnian territory, they found an abandoned house close to the border to sleep for the night. The following morning they started walking and crossed the border to Croatia. According to the respondent, after 6 to 7 hours of walking in the forest they reached a big road, where the police apprehended them at around 2-3 p.m. The respondent described the officers as 5 ‘policemen’. Four of them were wearing dark blue uniforms with top and bottom of the same colour, with hats, belts, and a Croatian flag on the uniform. The respondent then identified them from image galleries as being uniforms of the Croatian Border Police. The fifth person was in civilian clothes, wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. At that moment there was only one police patrol car, which he described as white.
The respondent described the moment of the apprehension as violent and chaotic: the police officers were very aggressive and threatened the group by shooting three times in the air. The officers beat most of them with batons, and took shoes, clothes, bags, phones, and power banks, which were never returned to the group. One police dog, which the respondent described as a German shepherd with a muzzle, approached one guy of the group in a non-aggressive way. The respondent himself then asked the police to provide the documents to seek asylum in Croatia, but the police just answered “not now!” and did not address this again after. After 10 minutes, a second police car came with 2 more police officers, and 20 minutes later a big van also came, driven by two further policemen. The respondent describes the van as white, “combi” shaped, and with “policija” sign on the side. He also describes that there was no windows on the back and protection gates on the front. After seeing the image galleries, the respondent identified the vehicle as a Croatian prisoner transport van. The whole group was then pushed inside the van, where the respondent recalls that there wasn’t enough space and seats for everybody: one person had to sit on the ground and the others squeezed together on the seated benches on the sides. The ride took approximately 40 minutes, and the respondent recalls: “It was too much dangerous driving. Fast and brake. Fast and brake. Two people vomited. There was not enough oxygen and it was too hot inside”. After the ride, the group was left on the border in a forest near Hadžin Potok. According to the respondent, around 4:30 p.m. the group was then pushed into Korana river, which marks the border between Croatia and Bosnia. The police hit people with batons again, forcing them into the river. The water level reached waist height – fortunately all group members knew how to swim. The respondent recalls that the water temperature was freezing, and they had to walk afterwards with wet cold clothes.
They then walked back to Bihac for 6 to 7 hours, without food and very little money, arriving in the city at night time. The respondent also described that the hematomas and wounds on his back and sides lasted three weeks after the beating.