After having been on the game from Bosnia for four days, the group of seven people on the move, including a family with three underage children, were caught by the authorities on a blue bridge in the city of Glina, Croatia. The Croatian officers first caught the woman and her children, so the three men who were traveling with them decided to return to the police as well.

“They caught the women first and the children, so all the men went back to them.”

At first, there was one big police car, but soon after two other police cars arrived. The respondent described that there were six officers, four of them wearing blue uniforms and two in civilian clothing, all of them carrying guns. When the officers detected the group, they told them that they were illegal in Croatia and therefore needed to go back to Bosnia. They asked them if they had knives or other weapons with them or money. The people on the move denied all. Then, the officers took their phones. The group of seven asked for asylum and the officers answered, that they would not get asylum in Croatia.

The group had to enter a van and was brought to a parking lot in front of a police station where they had to stay inside the van. Three other officers then drove them to the Bosnian border. They returned their phones, however, the group discovered that some of the charge inputs were broken.

It was around 1.00 am when the people on the move were pushed back to a spot in Bosnia in the middle of the woods. They walked for seven kilometers until they decided to sleep outside in the woods that night. On the next morning they were able to get a bus back to Velika Kladusa.

One of the respondents mentioned:

“The worst is, the police does not care about the well being or safety of the children nor the woman.”