“We are just kids. They know we’re just kids, why do they treat us like terrorists?”

The officers asked where the group was from, then they took the group to a 3-floors building that the respondent identified as a police station. A female uniformed officer in the station took their fingerprints and gave them a document written in Croatian, which stated that: “the person in question expressed his intention to submit a request for international protection (…) and must register at the reception centre in Zagreb no later than 25/03/2024”. The officers explained that the group could go to the camp in Zagreb with the help of this document in 3 days. The respondent states that they were then not allowed to leave the station, and the group was forced to stay in a room which he describes as like a ‘warehouse’ and with no windows. They slept on the concrete which was cold. They had to sleep there for two nights, and the respondent recalls that the officers swore at them when they asked for food from them. The respondent states “We even offered to pay for our food if they could buy some for us and they shouted, “Fuck you!”. We only managed to drink the tap water in the room.” Since one of the group could speak Turkish and one of the police officers could understand Turkish, there was a bit of communication between them, and the respondent recalls that “Officers asked us if we had ID cards from Bosnia and we said yes. One of them said we had no luck and would be sent back to Bosnia”. Then the officers gave the group a document written in Bosnian. After the two nights in the station, on the 24th March, they were forced to get in a big van and the respondent recalls that there was another group of 18 people inside the van. Their phones were taken by the officers and they were driven in this vehicle for two hours towards Zagreb. However, all of the 22 people were dropped off in a forest an hour before Zagreb. The group began walking towards Zagreb, but had no food or water and the terrain was so challenging for them to walk. Eventually the group found a highway to walk along, but not long after that, another car arrived. The respondent states that it looked like a ‘military’ car this time with 4 men wearing uniforms the respondent identified as ‘military’ uniforms. The description seems to match that of the Croatian Special Police (Specijalna Jednica Policija). The group told these officers that they were going to Zagreb and showed the documents that the previous officers had given them. The respondent recalls that the group was told to wait, then they were searched and their phones were taken. The respondent said “I was hiding my phone, and when one of them found it he started hitting me over the head with it. It hurt so much. The other officers were hitting the other people with the batons. They beat everyone, not caring if they were women or children”. The respondent recalls that the beating continued for several hours, then the group was put in another vehicle. The respondent recalls it had a cage, like a ‘prison vehicle’. The group was brought to the Bosnian border within an hour and a half in this vehicle, which they were very frightened of because it was being driven very fast. As their mobile phones were confiscated, the respondent was unsure where they were going and how long it took, but the place they were taken to was beside a river and near the Bosnian town of Velika Kladusa. When the doors of the vehicle were opened, the respondent recalls seeing 10 male officers, whom the respondent thought were police officers and who wore dark-blue uniforms with the Croatian flag on. Two of them were wearing black balaclava masks. The respondent states: “They started to beat everyone with their batons, they were hitting each person’s heads while we were getting out of the vehicle. They were shouting “Go to Bosnia!”. We at least wanted our phones back and they threw away the phones after breaking charging pots with their knife”. The group tried to show the documents they had been given at the police station, but the respondent recalls the officer ignored this. The respondent said that around 4 p.m., the group of 22 people was pushed back towards the nearby Bosnian town of Velika Kladusa. The group was pushed into the river by these ten Croatian officers, and the respondent states: “It was obvious that the river was deep and we were looking for a shallow spot to cross it so that we wouldn’t drown but they kicked and pushed us from back without waiting”. The respondent searched for the phones in the river, but recalls that officers shouted: “No phone, go to Bosnia!”. The respondent states: “Suddenly, I saw one of them pointing his gun at me. Five more minutes in the river and he’d have shot me. I had no other choice but to run towards Bosnia. Some women and children cannot swim and we helped them”.