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“When the group didn’t move, the policeman took out his gun and pointed it at the group”

The main respondent is a 30-year-old man from Afghanistan. According to the respondent, a group of 12 people from Afghanistan started from Bihac (Bosnia) the attempt to cross the border on the evening of the 12th December 2023. The respondent describes the group being made up of several families, more precisely 3 adult women, 4 adult man and 5 kids between the age of 4 to 10 years. The respondent reports that the group crossed the border in the night and continued to walk through the forest. The respondent states that on the 13th of December, at 7 a.m. in the morning, the group was stopped by two men dressed in black uniforms with their faces visible. He is not able to provide an detailed description of the uniformed men, but refers to them as “Croatian Police”. The respondents estimates that the location they got stopped by the police officers is in approximately one kilometre distance from the Croatian-Bosnian border.
The respondent states that the police made them walk back through the woods until they arrived at a river. The respondent reports that next to the river the police took their money, took their phones and destroyed them, and forced the group to strip down their outer clothes. The respondent claims that afterwards they got beaten with batons in the head. The respondent describes that after this the police told them to walk back through the river to go back to the Bosnian side. The respondent states that when the group didn’t want to enter the water because it was very cold, the police officers started to use the batons again to make them go inside the water. The respondent reports that when they wanted to stop to take off their shoes for preventing them from getting wet, the police officers started to beat them again and forced them to walk through the river with their shoes on. The respondent describes the water level being up to his hip, but for the children the water level was up to their neck. The respondent reports that when the group arrived at the other side of the river they couldn’t continue walking because their feet were very cold and they took some time to rest on the other side. The respondent states that after 10 minutes one police officer from the Croatian side was shouting at them from the other side of the river that they should walk back to Bosnia immediately, and when the group didn’t move the police officer took out his gun and pointed it at the group. The respondent claims that after this the group started to walk back to Bosnia.

overview
12 people ,
from Afghanistan,
aged 4-40 years old.
