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We sought asylum in Croatia but were transported back like animals
The main respondent is a 27-year-old man from Palestine. According to the respondent, he was travelling within a transit group with two other Palestinians aged 40 and 50. The respondent reports that they have been on the Balkan route for two months, initially aiming to reach Europe through Serbia and Hungary. However, he recalls facing pushbacks three times during this period: once from Bulgaria to Turkey and twice from Croatia to Bosnia. The respondent reports that at around 9 p.m. on the 13th of December, the transit group found themselves in Metković, a Croatian city in the southeast on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The respondent states that four men in uniforms stopped them. The respondent doesn’t remember clearly any details of the uniforms but he claims them to be Croatian Police officers. According to the respondent, one officer was holding a gun, and two officers were holding batons.
The respondent states that he and the other two members of the transit group clearly expressed the intention to seek asylum in Croatia, but the officers loaded them onto a white van and returned them to Bosnia. The respondent describes the interior of the van as having a cage with six seats and chains to secure the feet: “They transported us like animals”. The respondent recalls that the transfer in the van lasted about an hour, and they were unloaded in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.