“Who will be the first to have his legs stabbed, to make sure you never try to walk here again?”

Two friends escaped in this moment, and they were left with six people. The officers told the group to get down on the ground, which they did. According to the respondent, the officers wore dark blue uniforms, a description matching those of those of the Serbian police brigade. The respondent recalled a conversation with one of the Serbian officers: An officer asked who spoke English, and the respondent spoke up as the group’s English speaker. The officer asked where the group was from, and the respondent replied that they were all Syrian except for one Egyptian. The officer then asked what they were doing in Serbia, to which the respondent answered, “we are migrants, we have a war in our country, and we want to have a good life. The situation in Syria is very bad, we cannot continue our studies, our lives, or do anything.” According to the respondent, the officer then kept making statements and asking leading questions about the war in Syria being over, as if trying to push the respondent to admit that the war in Syria was indeed over, or “prove him a liar” (the respondent then told him he could check the news on this). The officer then asked the respondent if he was Muslim, to which the respondent answered yes. The respondent recalls the officer then saying, “This is a Christian country. What are you doing in a Christian country? Don’t you feel ashamed of coming here?”. The respondent said that he did not want to stay here, he wanted to continue his journey to Germany. The officer then told the respondent that they (the police) would put the group back over the Bulgarian border. The respondent told the police officer, “I want to go to the camp. I heard there is a camp in Serbia”, to which the respondent recalls that the officer replied that “there is no camp in Serbia. We will not let you in, and don’t come back.”

The respondent states that in this time, another car arrived, with one Serbian officer in dark blue uniform, whose name card said “Ivo”, and two Italian police officers. The respondent recalls them speaking in Italian and their uniforms having the Italian flag on the arm. The car described matches the Toyota Land Cruiser of the Serbian police brigade. The respondent reports that they waited there for between ten and twenty minutes, and then another car arrived, with four Serbian police officers, wearing dark blue uniforms, those of the Serbian police brigade. The respondent remembers the car, also a “Jeep-like” car, being a dark colour, such as grey, and without visible police logo. The officers in the car reportedly got out and searched the group, forcing them to take off their jackets, shoes, socks, etc. The respondent reports that these officers confiscated every person’s phone and power bank, and then left in the car with the phones and powerbanks.

Next, the respondent attests that the group of six was made to walk in single file, accompanied by two officers and followed by the police Jeeps, for approximately one kilometre, after which an unmarked black van with two men inside met the group, took them inside, and drove them to a location next to a river. We can guess that they were let out of the car at a site on the river Jerma, as this river covers territory between Pirot and the Bulgarian border. The respondent recounts that the officer opened the car and told the group to get out, and then told them that there was a Serbian camp three kilometers away, and pointed them in a direction. The respondent said they knew he was lying, because it was a pushback, and they did not have any phones to be able to see where they were. The respondent states that after what felt like an hour, in the early morning — though he did not have a phone to check — the group tried again, with only four people this time, as the others decided to go back to Bulgaria. The respondent estimates that the group walked approximately 10-15 kilometers into the village again.

He recalls that suddenly, the group saw one of the same Toyota Land Cruisers that had stopped them before in front of them. One of the officers was “Ivo”, though this time, there were no Italian officers, only “Ivo” and one other Serbian officer. The respondent remarks that it struck him that “Ivo” was wearing a different uniform, this time a black one. He states that Ivo got out of the car and asked the respondent what they were doing there. The respondent pretended not to know where he was, and said that because he didn’t have a map he picked a direction to walk in and ended up there. He recalls that there were three Afghani people in the back of “Ivo”s vehicle, so a second car was called. The respondent described this vehicle as a tall, black, unmarked vehicle with a covered truck back. The four of them were made to sit in the back, where there were no seats, and the officer Ivo switched cars to be driving the truck with the group inside. The Land Cruiser followed behind. The respondent states that the group was thrown again in the same place by the river. The respondent reports that as the group got out of the car and began walking towards the river, the officers started throwing stones at them. The group tried to get away quickly. The respondent recounts that after what felt like another hour, the group of four decided to try again, for a third time. The Afghani people had left on their own. When they arrived to the village, it was bright daytime. According to the respondent, the group was quickly intercepted again by the same police brigade Land Cruiser with “Ivo” and the other officer. This time, the respondent remarks, officer “Ivo” was wearing the blue uniform again; it struck the respondent as strange that he should change his uniform again.

The respondent states that the officers just looked at the group for a moment, but did not do anything violent, because there were people around. The respondent recalls being taken in this car to a different location, which felt much further away, and very high. He reports seeing the Bulgarian flag outside the window. The respondent recounts the following violent incident: When the car stopped, the officer “Ivo” told the group to to get out of the car. The respondent remembers this officer’s name tag well because he was pushed back by officer “Ivo” all three times. Ivo is young, bald, fit. At this location, another car arrived, an unmarked black car, “Jeep-like”. The car did not have any license plates displayed. Two officers in black uniforms came out and put a black bag on the ground. While officer “Ivo” watched the group, one of the officers in black unpacked the bag and gave gloves and black balaclavas to the rest of the officers, who put them on their hands and over their faces. He also handed a knife from the bag to “Ivo”. All of the officers had batons.

“Ivo” opened a knife and said, “who will be first to have his legs stabbed, to make sure you never try to walk here again?” The respondent recalls that one of his friends was crying, and they were very afraid. The respondent told “Ivo” that he would never see their faces again, and promised they would leave. “Ivo” motioned to his partner officer to retrieve a gun, which one of the officers in black took from his waistband and gave to him. This officer looked around mid to late thirties, light brown skin, and had short black hair shaved around all the sides except for a circle on top of his head, “like a soldier”. This man cocked the gun, pointed it at the group and said, “if I see you here again, I will kill you”. The group got up from the ground, and the two other officers in black hit their backs with batons as they ran away.