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Both were taken to prison in Sremska Mitrovica (...) The judge changed the age of the minor, declaring that he was 18 years old

Date & Time 2018-02-02
Location Tovarnik, Croatia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.1648822, 19.1522058
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved no
Age unknown
Group size 2
Countries of origin Afghanistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention detention, forced to pay fee
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved unknown
Violence used exposure to air condition and extreme temperature during car ride
Police involved Croatian and Serbian police

Two men from Afghanistan (one minor, 17 years old) were caught by the Croatian border police at the border crossing Sid – Tovarnik around 1:30 a.m. During the scanner check they were detected, as they were hiding inside of a truck. They were brought out of the truck, and the police officers placed the two men inside of a “small police car” and turned on the cold air conditioning. They kept them there for 7 hours, from 2:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

Before being locked in the car, the 2 men told the police that they didn’t want to go back to Serbia because they were encountering many problems there (“my health, my family, money, and other things, a lot of things, …”). The police responded: “this is a border, we don’t give an asylum to you”. They didn’t ask them any personal information.

After 7 hours of being held in the car with the cold air conditioning, Croatian border police transferred them directly to the Serbian border police at the same border crossing, Sid – Tovarnik. The Serbian police brought them to the police station in Sid.

They went to court, where the judge was asking them to pay a fine of 5000 RSD (50 euros) for illegal border crossing. They didn’t have enough money  so both men were taken to prison in Sremska Mitrovica, where they spent 6 days. The judge changed the age of the minor, declaring that he was 18 years old and wrote in an official document that he was born on 1.1.2000. (copies of the original documents given by the judge and after by the prison police are available).