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They kept us for five hours in a room and took our mobile phones, money and everything

Date & Time 2021-03-24
Location Granični prijelaz Bajakovo (Croatia)
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.04833013, 19.09835815
Pushback from Croatia, Slovenia
Pushback to Croatia, Serbia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 25 - 35
Group size 4
Countries of origin Pakistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention papers signed, locked in a room for 4-5h
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 9
Violence used theft of personal belongings, angry talking
Police involved In the apprehension: Five Slovenian border police officers, small blue van. Two Croatian police officers. In the deportation: Two Croatian police officers.

The respondent is a 26-year-old man from Pakistan. On the 23rd of March, he crossed the border from Croatia into Slovenia with another three men, all from Pakistan. The respondent described that they were detected and apprehended by police officers around 00:00 at the border.

The respondent reported that they were kept for 5 hours at this location, inside the police office at the border crossing “Gruškovje”. The respondent explained there were five uniformed men, that he identified as Slovenian border police officers. First, the officers reportedly took the mobile phones and the money of all the members of the group. According to the respondent, they were then forced to sign a paper, which they did not understand, as it was written in the Slovenian language, and nobody translated it for them. The respondent demanded to ask for political asylum, but he was told that, instead, they would be brought back.

Afterwards, the whole group was reportedly brought to the other side of the border in Croatia. They were transferred in a small blue van around 5:00 am, on the 24th of March.

The respondent explained that they were detained again for about four or five hours in a police station in Croatia, in this case, with two male police officers. The room that they were held in was locked from the outside. The respondent said that they were talking in the Croatian language to the group members in an angry way, even if they were not insulting them. According to the respondent, he and the rest of the group were forced again to sign a paper written in Croatian, without having the possibility of a translation. The respondent supposes this was a document declaring that they would bring him back to Serbia. The respondent mentioned that they did not try to ask for asylum in Croatia, this time.

After being kept for four or five hours inside the room, the group was reportedly put in a van and taken to the border with Serbia by two uniformed Croatian people. The respondent recounted that the officers stopped the van in Granični prijelaz Bajakovo, in the border crossing near Batrovci (Serbia). The officers returned their telephones and money to the group and forced them to walk back into Serbia at around 12:30 pm.