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We were pushed back 2 times in 24 hours
from Croatia to Bosnia,
The main respondent is a 25-year-old woman from Morocco, Rabat. She responded that on the 23rd and 24th of April, she was apprehended with 5 other people in Croatia and was pushed back two times to Bosnia. The group was composed of Moroccan nationals, 3 men and 3 women, one of them was a minor, the others where between 18 and 33 years old. The group left Bihac from the camp Borici by taxi at 12 a.m. on Sunday 21st of April. From Borici they drove 2 hours to the border. The group started walking at 2 a.m. in the morning for 3 days. After walking for the whole night, the group slept during the following day to avoid being discovered by the police. They slept on the ground of a small house in cold and wet conditions. The group started walking again in the late afternoon and arrived at a ‘big road’. After they walked for some time close to the big road a drone flew over them and at around 8 p.m. many police officers came by van and stopped the group, which the respondent couldn’t quantify. The respondent described the policemen as wearing blue uniforms, with matching colours for shirts and trousers, and could identify them after showing her the image galleries later, as Croatian border police. The police had two muzzled dogs with them. The respondent described the police vehicle as big white van, with police written on the side and with no windows in the back. After showing her the image galleries she could identify the vehicles 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.
The group had to hand over their phones, their backpacks, and their money. After that the police took out their guns and said, “if you have a knife, give it to me, if not I will shoot”. The police brought the group of 6 people into the car and drove for 40 minutes back to the border. The respondent describes the interior as dark with no light. The police let the group out of the car at around 9.30 p.m. close to the border, and told them to go back to Bosnia, in a location that the respondent couldn’t identify. The responded described the police as acting aggressively. They shouted at them “What else do you have in your pocket? What do you want to do?”. The group started to walk back to Bosnia and when the police left, the group turned and started to walk again to Croatia. They had nothing left with them, no phones, no money, no food. The group walked for hours and slept on the 23rd during the day on the ground in the forest. They started again walking in the evening. At around 1 a.m. they saw a tiny police car on the road, with three policemen inside. The respondent described the three police officers wearing dark blue uniforms and also identified these as Croatian border police. She described the vehicle as a small white police car with police written on the side, after showing her the image galleries she could identify the vehicle as a Croatian patrol car. The group explicitly stated their intention to seek asylum in Croatia, which the officers did not acknowledge. The police just told them they should wait and can’t ask for asylum. The three police officers called somebody for backup. A little later a big white police van arrived, which looked similar to the one of the previous pushback. The policemen who arrived, which the respondent couldn’t quantify, wore the same uniform as the others. The policemen brought them into the car without answering their question about asylum. They drove for 1 hour back and left the group at the border at around 3 a.m. Even if the respondent couldn’t identify the location of the pushback, she described it as being on a river (probably Una river), which marks the border between Croatia and Bosnia. The police dropped the group close to the river and pushed them into the water and took out their guns. The police told them to leave. The water was chest high and cold and not everyone of the group was able to swim.
The group waded through the river and then walked 1 hour more from the border until they met a man on the street who called a taxi for them. After a 2 hours taxi ride, they reached the camp Borici at around 6 a.m. in the morning on the 24th of April. During the interview the respondent underlined how in order to avoid the police, it was necessary for them to walk in impervious and dangerous mountain areas. The respondent also described an injury occurred on the second day of walking due to a falling during the walking in the mountains. She hit her head on the left side close to the ear and sprained her left ankle. The photo attached to the present report, taken by the respondent a few days after the push backs, shows her swollen ankle. The location on the map of the present report is then only approximate.