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What kind of humanity takes our phones and money?

Date & Time 2019-01-06
Location near Jamena, Serbia
Reported by Border Violence Monitoring Network
Coordinates 44.8658103, 19.04231118
Pushback from Bosnia
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 16 - 50
Group size 20
Countries of origin Pakistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 8
Violence used theft of personal belongings
Police involved 8 Bosnian police officers, all men wearing blue uniforms; 4 police vans, one police boat

A group of twenty individuals, all from Pakistan, left Loznica (SRB) on May 31 at 10:00PM and walked thirty minutes from the town center to the Bosnian border. At the border, they crossed the Drina River and entered Bosnian territory. They walked in the forest until they reached the village Supna (BiH). It was raining heavily and all the members of the group were very wet.

Around 6:00AM or 7:00AM, the group walked on a small road in Supna and at this point, the police saw them. There were four police officers, all men wearing blue uniforms. They were driving two white vans. When the police saw the group, they asked how many people were with them. The police officers took everyone’s mobile phones and money, but told the group members that these items would be returned at the border.

The police told the individuals to enter the two vans and they drove the group to what the respondent described as an “army center.” The four police officers who initially apprehended the group dropped the men off at this centre and four new police officers then dealt with the group members in the building.

The officers asked the men what their country of origin was. After only two or three minutes at the centre, the police loaded the group members into two large vans and drove the individuals for one and a half hours to a place on the border that was unfamiliar to the group members.

At the border, the respondent asked the police to return their money, amounting to  about 1,000 Euros, and their mobile phones, but

“[the officer] held his baton in the air and threatened to hit us with it when I asked for our things. Someone told me that Bosnia is a good country; that they wouldn’t take anything from us. What kind of humanity takes our phones and money?”

The police officers brought the group members across the River Drina in a police boat in groups of four and shouted at them,

“Never come to Bosnia again!”

Once across the river, the group members walked for two or three hours to the village Jamena (SRB) and then walked 30 kilometers further to Šid (SRB).