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every change of car they beat.' Three different groups pushed back together part 2

Date & Time 2019-04-05
Location Vremski Britof
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.6573806, 14.028733
Pushback from Slovenia, Croatia
Pushback to Croatia, Bosnia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 21 - 22
Group size 2
Countries of origin Afghanistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention detention, fingerprints taken, photos taken, personal information taken, papers signed, no translator present, denial of food/water
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved unknown
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, pouring water over one's head, threatening with guns, theft of personal belongings
Police involved slovenian police officers, slovenian police cars, croatian police officers, croatian police cars, 1 croatian police van

The two men started their journey from Šid (SRB) where they hid under a train in order to enter one of its containers during the night. For two whole days they remained in the containers, being taken all the way to Slovenia. In Slovenia, they left the containers and started doing the rest of the travel by foot.

The men walked for around six hours in the forest until the data on their phones ended and, without being able to consult maps any more, they got lost. After a while wandering around they arrived to Vremski Britof. In the village they inquired about their location to several people. The respondent inferred that these individuals later called the police to catch them. Two young Slovenian policemen in blue uniforms arrived around 3:00 pm.

‘They came and I spoke asylum, but they no asylum, and they started searching my bag and putting water on my friend and beating him in the face.’

The officers took the men’s phones and powerbanks and drove them to a police station. They stayed in the station for around two hours. Their names were registered and their pictures were taken. In this location, the men asked once more for asylum but their request was again ignored.

They were driven for around five hours to another station. The location of the place was completely unknown to the men because they were put in the dark back part of the vehicle. In this second station, the man were told to sign a paper.

‘They asked us if we know asylum, then we should write our name sign there. They say that they were asylum papers, but I don’t think they were’

The men were kept there for around eight hours, being put in a dark room without any access to water or food.

In the morning, at around 8:30 am, the two men were put in a police car with two officers and driven for around 30 min to the Croatian border. At the border, they were told to get out of the vehicle. Two Croatian police officers with blue uniforms and a badge on their shoulder were waiting for them and requesting once more for their signature on a paper. The two group-members could not understand what was written on the papers, since it was in Croatian. The men were transferred to a Croatian police car and driven for less than an hour to a Croatian police station. Again the respondent had no notion of the location of the place, since it was dark inside the vehicle.

In this last station, the respondent described being forced to sign another document and then later beaten when asking for asylum. ‘They beat me in the face with their hands.’ remarked the respondent while showing the bruised and swollen left side of his face and saying he was embarrassed of it. They were kept in a room with three beds until nighttime, at which point the policemen took them to a van where there were already ten other men (the men referred to in two other reports from this month – 1, 2) and four police officers with blue uniforms.

In the last vehicle, two of the officers also hit the group (which was now 12 men,) after they asked about their location. The men were left, after a two hours journey, at the Bosnian-Croatian border at around 3:00 am of the 6th of May, near Velika Kladuša. They walked back to the city all together. A number of the men presented severe injuries.

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