‘Don’t come back or there will be a problem!’

The respondent is a Syrian man in his twenties, travelling with another 25-year-old Syrian man. At the end of April 2025, though he couldn’t recall the exact date, the transit group was pushed back from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The transit group was next to Vrgorac Central Bus Station when an unmarked car, described as ‘normal’, approached them. Two men got out wearing plain, civilian clothing, but the respondent identified them as Croatian police because they immediately showed them their police badges. He explained that the badges looked like ‘a star’.

The respondent asked the police how they found him, and they told him they had seen them on a camera. According to the respondent, the police then patted the respondent and his friend down. The respondent described feeling scared about expressing his nationality; therefore, he reportedly lied to the authorities about his country of origin. He explained that he felt that telling the authorities he was from Syria “could get him killed”.

The transit group was then put in the back of the car and driven back to the Bosnian border, specifically, he recalled being left close to the village Otrić-Seoci, at the location 43.159556, 17.479369. The two men walked back over the border into BiH by themselves.

The respondent described that he felt very scared after the police told them: 

 ‘Don’t come back or there will be a problem’