Police violence at the Croatian border
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It’s winter, it’s cold, -10 degrees Celsius. Through the haze, shadows are walking, clad in a blanket, in sandals. Men, women, children. They stroll along the side of the road by the dozens. Some are limping, others have their arms in a sling, a bandage on their heads. We are in Velika Kladusa, in the north of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a few kilometres from the Croatian border.
From this neighboring city, many migrants try to cross the border every day to enter Europe. Their destination, Italy, then France or Germany. They come from different countries, religions, and social classes. They are Afghans, Pakistanis, Algerians, Moroccans, Bengalis. But despite their differences, they are all looking for the same ideal, a better life.
Going to Croatia is a difficult stage, and the price is high. It is an ordeal that can cost life. You have to walk for long hours in the forest, sometimes several days, cross a river, avoid minefields, while being invisible. The Croatian border is one of the best guarded in Europe, dogs, military drones, thermal cameras, mobile police who do not hesitate to be violent when they can. It is so difficult that the migrants themselves call it “Game”, because each step taken is the passage to a higher level.
It is impossible to get exact figures, but according to “Border violence monitoring network” during the month of March there were more than 229 people turned back on the border between Bosnia and Croatia and 677 in all of them. Balkans. Almost 75 percent of these “push back” are carried out violently.
Physical violence
When the Croatian security forces arrest asylum seekers who have crossed the border illegally, they deliver them to another division, the migrants call them “commandos”. Hooded men, over-trained, and armed to the teeth. They embark them in a van and take them to a place out of sight. Once there, they take them out, put them in a line, and ask them if they speak English. The goal is to know who is the smuggler. Of course no one answers. Then they question them and deprive them of their possessions, money, cell phone, sleeping bag and clothes.
Ahmad is 27 years old, he comes from Afghanistan. Every day, he walks for several hours to cross the border, he is arrested by the police and pushed back violently towards Bosnia. He says: “The policeman said to me: do you speak English? I did not answer and he hit me with a stick. Then he did the same to my comrade. After that, they ask us for our money, they break our phone and burn our clothes, leaving us in our underwear and sometimes naked. After that they hit us. “
Croatian security forces beat migrants so that they no longer want to try their luck. They bruise them in a way that creates permanent wounds, which cripple them. They hit the knees, ankles, and back. They enjoy damaging faces, dislodging jaws and breaking teeth. Ahmad remembers, “They asked my friend to open his jaw and they hit him with the fist. Another Algerian migrant, Yacine says, the police took them about 500 meters from the Bosnian border,” they told us to run to Bosnia and then they unleashed the dogs behind us.”
The torture
The “commandos” do not content themselves with violating migrants, they torture them, make them suffer, traumatize them. They systematically use inhumane methods. Ahmad shows a photo of his bruised back on his cell phone. “Look, they wanted to draw a cross on my back with a stick, one policeman hit me like that and the other the other way around.” A common practice is to mark Muslims with a cross on their backs by wounding them or with spray paint on their head.
Christina is a volunteer doctor who works in Una Sana canton in northern Bosnia. Every day, she treats people who have been victims of violence. She shares an event that marked her a lot. “He must have been a 17 or 18-year-old boy, it was his first crossing. They undressed him, told him to raise his arms and one by one, 16 policemen hit him with their guns in the ribs. When I met him he was traumatized. “
Women and children
Christina explains that Croatian law enforcement also attacks women and children. They hit women, mainly in the stomach, they humiliate them. “I witnessed several women with internal stomach bleeding. One day I also took care of a woman who told me that the police stripped her naked in front of her family and searched her completely inappropriately. The youngest child I saw with tear gas was 4 months old, “she said.
Psychological violence
Physical violence, torture, are only one aspect of what migrants endure on their way to Europe. They are also victims of psychological violence which has a significant impact on their mental health. Ahmad says: “They play with us. They tell you that they take you to a camp in Zagreb and they bring you back to the Bosnian border. They are nice to you and just after they hit you”, and that systematically. The repetition and normalization of this violence greatly affects the minds of migrants “Every day we cross the border, every day we are arrested, every day they beat us and send us back to Bosnia” reports Ahmad.
Without a safe and legal way to enter Europe, migrants are therefore forced to take riskier routes and many do not survive these hardships. On March 4, 2021, a group of migrants stepped on an anti-personnel mine in Croatia, at least one person died and several others were injured. In the same month, another migrant of Turkish origin died crossing the border river in a makeshift boat.
Despite all these dangers and difficulties, migrants still try. Mohamed, an Afghan asylum seeker explains to us, “In my country, they slit our throats, they shoot us. We are not safe. I saw the behavior of the Croatian police towards us. They are going to beat us, it’s not a problem. We have to go. “
