Evidence of the involvement of official bodies in their training and financing
Political stories.. Masked men beat migrants to prevent them from entering the European Union
Migrants stranded on the Greek island of Lesbos.
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Migrants on the Croatian border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Press reports revealed that mysterious men wearing masks beat refugees at the external borders of the European Union, or leave them at sea to face the unknown.
On the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, strong men in dark uniforms and balaclavas slip through trees, beating and kicking their Afghan and Pakistani victims who came to Europe to seek asylum with sticks and hands.
Their uniforms do not bear any insignia in order not to be recognized.
But they did not realize that behind them there are journalists who monitor their every move and film their practices.
The videos document how these masked men expel a number of refugees trying to enter the European Union, to return to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
These masked men pointed their sticks at the feet of the migrants and shouted at them, “Go!
Go to Bosnia!"
Human rights experts point out that pushbacks of refugees are illegal and violate both European Union law and the Geneva Refugee Convention, which states that migrants should not be at risk, and once they reach European territory, they should be given the opportunity to apply for asylum, and that hitting defenseless people is forbidden to anyway.
Certificates
NGOs, such as the Border Violence Watch Network, and several media outlets, including the newspaper Der Spiegel, have collected testimonies from hundreds of refugees and obtained evidence of violence committed at the EU's external borders.
Incidents are not limited to the systematic beating of asylum seekers at the Croatian border. In the Aegean, according to the testimony of some witnesses, masked men repeatedly drove refugees away into the sea and left them there on inflatable boats to face their fate.
Who are these mysterious men who offend people at the EU's external borders? From where do they receive their orders to so brutally expel potential asylum seekers?
Der Spiegel has spent more than eight months monitoring what is happening at the EU's external borders in Croatia and Greece along with several other European media outlets, including Lighthouse Reports, Swiss radio SRF and German public radio. ARD, the French daily Liberation, the Serbian newspaper "Novosti", the Croatian radio station "RTL" and the Dutch news outlet "Poynter".
The journalists disguised themselves as hunters to approach the scene, using drones over the border area, examining satellite images and analyzing hundreds of videos sent to them.
They spoke with more than 10 sources in various security services, and followed the digital evidence left by the men, who posted their photos on "Instagram" and "Facebook" while standing in front of the camera with their masks and hooks.
work in the shadows
The report revealed the existence of an organized network, made up of special units trained from Croatia and Greece, to force asylum seekers out of the European Union.
These units were originally used to prosecute rioters and drug dealers, but they often work in the shadows and are paid by European citizens.
Because of the secrecy surrounding these units, there has been almost no public discussion of their activities, and no political justification has been given for what they do.
Croatian officials claim that the refugees are just allegations, that they smear themselves with cherry syrup to make it look like they are bleeding.
They are sometimes beaten by violent gangs on the Bosnian side of the border.
However, our correspondents were able to photograph 11 cases of refugees being forced to return, and all of these cases occurred far from the official border crossings.
The report shows that at least some of the pushbacks are carried out by officers of the Croatian Intervention Police, a government unit under the command of the Ministry of the Interior.
Evidence for this conclusion comes first from the analysis of video materials that show the masked men wearing dark blue uniforms during the push-backs. The padded jackets worn by the men can be clearly seen in the video footage, and are identical to the model worn by the HIP.
Second, the participating media asked six Croatian officers who, after seeing the photos, confirmed that the masked men belonged to the Croatian Intervention Police. All officers interviewed requested that their names not be used for their own safety. There are other photos confirming the involvement of the Intervention Police in these events that took place in May and support the conclusion made by the media. The photos show a police officer involved in these events without a mask and with the words “Intervention Police” on the back of his jacket. Unit members receive special training, during which they are taught how to use a baton. Many of the unit's commanders are veterans who spent most of the 1990s fighting against Serbian forces.
In exchange for their participation in special operations against migrants at the border, the Intervention Police receive generous bonuses, which, as many Croatian officers say, usually amount to several hundreds of euros per month. While in the field they stay in hotels and places like the resort of Topusko, and work on the border with additional Croatian police units that have a better knowledge of the terrain. According to the officers, the operations are being carried out under the command of high-ranking police officers in the capital, Zagreb, under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, code-named Corridor.
Goran Novak, whose name in this investigative report has been changed at his request, is part of Operation Corridor.
He says his unit regularly uses physical force against asylum seekers.
"When we find migrants in the forest, they usually lie on the ground in fear, and the officers beat them in the legs with their batons," he says.
Another police officer was more explicit, saying, "The blocking operations are of course illegal, and every policeman knows that, but everyone acquiesces to orders that come from the top of the chain of command, from the Ministry of Interior."
Der Spiegel and its partners confronted the Croatian Ministry of the Interior with the accusations and video materials.
In response, the ministry announced that it intends to investigate the incidents on the film.
Its spokesman said the ministry would quickly send a team of experts to the border locations where the events were filmed.
She said that if it became clear that Croatian officers were involved, they would be held accountable.
NGOs that have spent years working in the border area assert that the Croatian government fully supports these practices.
NGO staff regularly hear horror stories, including the use of dogs against refugees and electric shocks.
In interviews, refugees said the women were groped.
“The pushbacks are systematic, not a decision by an individual police officer, it is the policy of the Croatian government,” says Anna Zwa of the Center for Peace Studies in Zagreb.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Croatian officials set up a complete infrastructure to conduct pushbacks.
Satellite images show that many new dirt roads have been built in recent years.
These roads extend from Croatian territory to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the photos also revealed torn backpacks, children's clothes and sleeping bags scattered, all of which testify to what happens regularly in these blocked roads.
A Bosnian border guard says he has found on countless occasions injured, bleeding migrants who had been beaten on the Croatian side of the border.
He is certain, he says, of the responsibility of the intervention police in these events.
“There were cases where they hit groups of migrants so badly that all of them ended up in the hospital.”
In the winter, he says, he sometimes finds people sitting freezing from the cold.
In recent months, the Aegean Sea has become a battleground against migrants.
Fifteen videos of asylum seekers and the Turkish coast guard show how violence is escalating.
Men in masks puncture refugee boats with hooks and fire warning shots into the water.
inhumane practices
The worst of the incidents is that masked men dragged Junior Amba, a citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and his pregnant wife to sea in a lifeboat at night, leaving them in the dark waters of the Aegean.
They had arrived on the Greek island of Samos hours earlier, at dawn on April 21.
Photos and witness reports confirm this part of the story.
They crossed from the nearby Turkish coast on an inflatable boat.
At first, says Amba, he and some of the refugees hid from the police in the hills.
But he says security forces quickly found them and took them back to sea, along with 26 other asylum seekers.
He says he feared for his life on the wobbly lifeline without a motor, adding that the men did not even give them life jackets.
Compliance with the law
The European Commission's chief migration policy officer, Ylva Johansson, often asserts in her speeches that EU member states have the right to protect their borders, but that they must abide by EU law. So far, some of these countries have largely ignored Johansson's pleas. In addition to the cases in Greece and Croatia, there are also reports of push-backs on the Romanian, Italian and Austrian borders. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian government is seeking to legalize this practice. In recent weeks, Poland has preferred to leave asylum seekers trapped in the Belarusian border region to starvation and homelessness rather than let them in.
Systematic returns not only jeopardize the continued existence of the Geneva Refugee Convention, but also call into question the EU's claims to the rule of law.
For this reason, Johansson has been lobbying for months for a so-called independent monitoring mechanism.
According to this plan, civil society organizations are to monitor national officials at the external borders of the European Union.
• Non-governmental organizations, such as the Border Violence Watch Network, and several media outlets, including the newspaper Der Spiegel, have collected the testimonies of hundreds of refugees and obtained evidence of violence perpetrated at the EU's external borders.
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