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Don’t come here back. If you come, we will beat you

Date & Time 2021-12-10
Location Lipovac, Croatia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.05505096, 19.10132625
Pushback from Croatia, Slovenia
Pushback to Croatia, Serbia
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 17 - 19
Group size 3
Countries of origin Afghanistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention detention, fingerprints taken, personal information taken, papers signed, no translator present, denial of food/water
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 7
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, pushing people to the ground, theft of personal belongings
Police involved At the apprehension: 3 Slovenian border officers, 1 police van. At deportation: 2 Slovenian police officers, 2 Croatian police officers, 1 prisoners van.

The respondent is an 18-year-old man from Afghanistan. On the 11th of October, he crossed the border from Croatia to Slovenia with another two men, who are also from Afghanistan, 17 and 19 years old. At around 4:00 pm, they were caught by the Slovenian border police in the border control.

The respondent and his friends were apprehended and ordered to approach the authorities. In total, there were 3 border police officers, 2 men and a woman. He remembers them wearing blue uniforms, with a light blue shirt and the word “Police” written on the back. He also remembers some star on one of the arms of the uniform, but he cannot recall how many.

Next, the transit group was forced to kneel down and the police then pat them down. They took their money (35€ of the respondent and 20€ of each one of his friends), their phones, belts, and their shoes. Reportedly, the authorities punched them in the face and kicked them. The respondent states that each time when they turned their faces to be able to see the officers they would start to beat them more. After what felt like 15 minutes to the respondent, the officers put the group in a big white van and drove them for 5 minutes until they reached their office in the border crossing “Obrezje” (Slovenia), which the respondent described as a ‘jail’, they were held there for 24h. They took the fingerprints of two of the group members. They were allowed to use the toilet, but they did not receive any water or food. Allegedly, the police officers repeated twice: “Don’t come here back. If you come, we will beat you”.

The next day, around 24 hours later, the authorities put them into another van, with two policemen, that drove them to the Croatian border. At around 5:00 pm, the whole group was handed to the Croatian police. The Croatian police directly put them in a large dark blue van, similar to the vans that are used to transport prisoners. Inside there were two male police officers wearing dark blue uniforms. From the border, they drove around 4 hours to the Serbian border.

At around 9:00 or 10:00 pm, the officers in the van opened the door somewhere on the green border between Lipovac (Croatia) and Batrovci (Serbia), ordering the group members to go in the direction of Serbia. None of the group members asked for asylum at any moment either in Slovenia or in Croatia out of fear.