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The respondent person had cuts on his hand caused by the electric shocks

Date & Time 2018-09-21
Location Forest close to the official border check-point in Velika Kladuša, Croatia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 45.194948, 15.765689
Pushback from Croatia
Pushback to Bosnia
Taken to a police station unknown
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 16 - 29
Group size 5
Countries of origin Morocco
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 9
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), insulting, electric shock, theft of personal belongings, reckless driving
Police involved 9 Croatian border officers, wearing black clothes

A group of six men left Velika Kladuša (BIH), crossed the Croatian border and were walking for three days through the country. Their walk was getting difficult at some point when they run out of food and water and the respondent had a headache throughout the journey. While they were walking through a forest, they were caught by the authorities. The officers asked them whether they were Muslims, and when they said yes, they started acting aggressively towards them. They attacked them with batons, followed by using electric shocks:

“They […] started beating us, bump, bump, bump. They had electric shock. I said why do that because this place is Europe and you don’t do that. Understand, I am a man like you, I am not an animal. He [police officer] said to me than I am an animal. He used the electricity and also baton.“

The respondent tried to ask the officers whether he could apply for asylum in Croatia, but they threatened him to not to speak as they would otherwise beat him even more. After that, the six of them were locked inside a police car and transported to the Bosnian border. The car was driving fast, so the men were falling from one side to another.

In the night, they reached the Bosnian border at a forest close to the official border check-point in Velika Kladuša (BIH). Nine officers dressed in black deported the men back to Bosnia. Once they arrived at the border, the officers stole the group’s phones and attacked them once again while pushing them back to Bosnia.

The respondent had cuts on his hand caused by the electric shocks. He tried to seek medical support in the local hospital in Velika Kladuša (BIH), but got refused as he couldn’t pay the 20 Bosnian Marks fee. Therefore, he treated the wound by himself, provisionally sewing his open wounds (see photo).