Croatia pinned again for violence against migrants

(illustration) Bosnian and Croatian border guards facing migrants, in Maljevac, October 24, 2018. REUTERS / Marko Djurica

Text by: RFI Follow

The human rights organization Amnesty International has returned to the charge denouncing the violence of the Croatian police forces against migrants in a report published this week, and asking the European Commission to take a stand. What she did. 

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According to an NGO statement released this week, sixteen migrants were "  tied up, brutally beaten and tortured  " by Croatian police after illegally crossing the border. The organization quotes Bosnian doctors and several migrants who said they were beaten with "iron sticks, batons and pistol butts," before being returned to Bosnia.

Listen to Lola Schulmann, in charge of Migrants and Refugees at Amnesty-France, at the microphone of Béatrice Léveillé

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The episode took place during the night of 26 to 27 May, near the border with Bosnia. "  We were in contact with a group of 16 people ," says Lola Schulmann, in charge of Refugees and Migrants files at Amnesty International France to Béatrice Léveillé of the international service of RFI, Pakistani and Afghan nationals . and with doctors who work on the Bosnian side of the border  . " Doctors described the injuries often inflicted on migrants, "  fractures which they take several months to heal  ".

► See also : Migrants injured on the border between Bosnia and Croatia [

The European Union challenged

"  What is disastrous is that the European Union is giving money to these Croatian officials to protect the border and these people are committing acts of torture  ", continues Lola Schulmann. Amnesty has arrested the European Commission, which reacted on Friday 12 June. "We are very concerned about these allegations," said a spokesman for the European executive, Adalbert Jahnz during the daily press briefing. "Violence, humiliation and degrading treatment of asylum seekers and migrants have no place in the European Union and must be condemned," he added.

The Commission plans to send, when the health situation allows, a mission on the spot, within the framework of a European surveillance mechanism for the respect of fundamental rights at borders. But this is not the first time that the human rights organization has denounced such facts. Thousands of migrants take the so-called Balkan Route every year  to try to reach Western Europe. Most pass through Croatia, an EU member country, most often from Bosnia. The Croatian Interior Ministry immediately denied "allegations which as usual and without any evidence implicate the Croatian police accused of injuring migrants", reports AFP. However, he announced that an investigation would be opened into the charges.

► Amnesty report on Croatia

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  • Croatia
  • Immigration
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