‘The police did not even know where they were beating’
| 17.06.2025 | Somewhere near Poljana (estimated location) | Collective Aid | 45.2171711, 15.9282948 | Croatia | Bosnia | No | no | yes | no | no | no | 22 - 30 | 2 | 6 | beating (with batons/hands/other), forcing to cross a river, theft of personal belongings | <p>6 Croatian police officers wearing dark blue uniforms</p> <p>A marked police car</p> |
The respondent is 22 years old and he is from Afghanistan. He was part of a transit group with another man aged 30, also from Afghanistan. On Tuesday, 17th June, at around 02:00 am, the transit group was violently pushed back from Croatia to Bosnia-Herzegovina. They had walked around 50 km into Croatia across two days before they were found by the police.
The respondent detailed that on their second night in Croatia, they were confronted by six people, who the respondent recognised as police officers, as they were wearing dark blue uniforms and had weapons on them that looked like batons. The respondent could not see their badges as it was dark at the time. The officers approached them when they were walking along the street. He explained that the police initially came on foot. When asked, he said he had not noticed any surveillance technology, so he was unaware of how the police had found them.
The respondent recalled being beaten all over his body with the batons, describing that:
‘The police did not even know where they were beating!’
He sustained injuries to his leg as a result, and his friend’s eye was also injured. During the assault, the police officers reportedly stole both of the men’s phones, their power banks, and a total of 300 euros.
After being beaten, a marked police car arrived, which drove them back to the border with Bosnia-Herzegovina; the drive took around 2.5 hours. The respondent described the drop-off point to be two sides of a forest with a river in the middle. On arrival, the police forcefully pushed the men into the river, despite their expressing that they did not want to enter the water. They requested instead to be taken across the border by car, but the police refused. The respondent said that the water was deep, around 1.5 meters, that it was ‘very cold’, but that the current was ‘normal’. It took both men around three minutes to swim across to the other side.
When asked if the respondent knew his location, he said he was unsure. He did not know where he had crossed into Croatia, or where the police had found them. However, according to the description of the pushback site and violence/pushback patterns of the Croatian police, we estimate the location to be somewhere in Una-Sana Canton (BIH).
The police spoke to the men in a language they did not understand, and they were not given access to a translator.