Skip to content
Support our work

The policewoman screamed rudely to me to sign the papers

Date & Time 2021-05-05
Location Slunjčica, Croazia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.07860982, 15.58822428
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 18 - 21
Group size 3
Countries of origin Afghanistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention fingerprints taken, photos taken, personal information taken, papers signed, no translator present
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved Unknown
Violence used no violence used
Police involved Officers described by the respondent as "Croatian police officers"

This testimony describes the respondent’s first pushback from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovenia. The testimony titled, “Now I have no idea what to do, we will try again and again”, recounts the respondent’s second pushback from the Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The respondent, an 18-year-old man from Afghanistan, was travelling with two other guys from Afghanistan (both aged 21) when they crossed the border from Bosnia and Herzegovina into Croatia. They were reportedly about 35 kilometers from the border when they were seen by a local man who they believe called the police. The group continued walking down a road behind a river. It was about 11 o clock in the morning. 

The respondent recalled a man in uniform arriving at their location and bringing them by car to a nearby building resembling a police station, where an officer reportedly told them they would be transferred to Zagreb so they could stay in Croatia for their asylum procedure. The respondent described how he told them they have been really lucky. The respondent then recalled a male officer and a female officer taking their pictures and asking them to sign some papers. The respondent, who had the best English in the group, explained to his two friends that the papers were “Eurodac” documents for the Dublin procedure in Croatia. He recalled how:

“The policewoman screamed rudely to me to sign the papers, so we signed and we thought that they would have brought us to Zagreb to start the asylum procedure”.

The three guys were then reportedly taken one by one into a room where they had to wash their hands and put their fingers on a machine to take their fingerprints. The respondent remembers they did this in what he described as a small storage room, not an office:

“it was a dark, weird place, not official for sure, they weren’t sitting on chairs but on truck wheels.”

After that, they were reportedly transported in a car by familiar officers which they thought would bring them to Zagreb, but after getting out of the car, they realised they were close to Bosnia again.

They were then pushed back over the border, and walked for about four hours to reach Velika Kladusa again.