This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
“When we saw that there was a gun, we just got scared and didn’t react, we submitted to it”
The main respondent is a 28 year-old man from Algeria. He reports that on Monday, the 12th of July 2024, a group of 4 men encountered the Croatian police near the border between Croatia and Slovenia. One of the police officers was holding a gun and two of them were holding batons. They hit them and took the money and the phones they had. They were later pushed back in the area of Cazin (Bosnia). The group was composed of 4 men, of Palestinian, Algerian and Moroccan origin, between 23 and 30 years old. The group left Bihać (Bosnia) on the 8th of July 2024. They crossed the border by foot and they were walking for 4 days in the forest, until, the 12th of July 2024, they got to Karlovac (Croatia).
The respondent reported that it was around 2 a.m. when the group was crossing a bridge in the forest in the area of Gornje Dubrave. They were surrounded by three police officers: two in front and one behind them. The one behind, was wearing a navy blue uniform, while the other two were wearing a light blue uniform, all of them with Croatian patches. As the police officers were approaching the bridge, they saw that the ones coming from the front were holding a baton, while the third one, coming from behind, was holding a gun. In the words of the respondent: “when we saw that there was a gun, we just got scared and didn’t react, we submitted to it”. The respondent reports that the police officer coming from behind punched the Moroccan and the Palestinian group members in the back of their neck and in their stomach. He did not punch the respondent because he was a bit further away. At that exact moment, the other 2 police officers took the 3 phones that the group was carrying and some money, around 250€ which, according to the respondent, it was all the money they had. After that event, the police forced the group to get inside a white van that, as the respondent pointed out, was not identified as a police van.
After some minutes of driving, the police officers dropped the group off nearby a river that divides Basara (Croatia) from Sturlić (Bosnia). The respondent described the river as not being very deep. The police officers forced them to cross it, as some of them were pushing them to the river while others were holding a pistol to intimidate them. The group managed to cross the river walking, and started walking to Bihać (Bosnia). On their way back, they stopped a car which brought them back to Bihać.
overview
4 people ,
from Algeria, Morocco, and Palestine,
aged 23-30.