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Migrants in Vucjak camp, Bosnia and Herzegovina, December 6, 2019. (Photo d'illustration) Antonio Bronic / Reuters

Abia Uchenna Alexandro and Eboh Kenneth Chinedu, two young students from Nigeria, took part in an international table tennis competition in Zagreb, Croatia, in mid-November. But despite their visas in good standing, the police arrested and deported them to a migrant camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Narrative of their rough journey.

Arriving in Zagreb, capital of Croatia, on November 12, they thought they would have a pleasant experience for six short days. Abia Uchenna Alexandro and Eboh Kenneth Chinedu had planned to return home in Lagos, Nigeria, on 18 November. Disappointed, their trip to Europe has been going for almost a month and has quickly taken an irrational turn.

The two students, aged 18, told their story at the Bosnian Zurnal site. The British media The Guardian also relayed it, as well as Infomigrants . The two young men, who are studying in their home country at the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), traveled to Croatia to participate in the 5th World InterUniversities Championship, a sports competition that brings together students from around the world. The 2019 edition was held in Pula, a Croatian coastal town.

" An officer told me he was going to shoot me ... "

On 18 November, two passengers were missing from the plane that was going to fly to Lagos. And for good reason: on the night of 17 to 18, Abia Uchenna Alexandro and Eboh Kenneth Chinedu were arrested, while they were walking in the streets of Zagreb, by two Croatian police officers.

" We tried to explain to them who we were and that our identity documents - visas validated by the Croatian authorities, Ed. - were at the hotel, but they took us to the station. They did not listen to what we told them , "says Eboh Kenneth Chinedu in Zurnal. An attitude that will have consequences.

Thinking that they were dealing with undocumented migrants, the Croatian police transferred them to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. There, Abia Uchenna Alexandro and Eboh Kenneth Chinedu were ordered to plunge into the forest, with a group of migrants intercepted earlier, and walk to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Eboh Kenneth Chinedu recalls: " I refused to go to the woods. But an officer told me he was going to shoot me if I did not move. "

A controversial expulsion amid violence against migrants

In the space of a few hours, the two young people went from an international competition to the migrant camp of Velika Kladusa , where thousands of migrants and refugees are packed. All this with temperatures below 0 ° C.

Between the language barrier and the difficulties inherent in migrant camps, Uchenna and Chinedi had to wait several days before their ordeal ended. Volunteers working in the camp helped them in contact Alberto Tanghetti, the organizer of the World InterUniversities Championship, who was able to confirm their identity.

" It is even more absurd that no one believed these boys when they tried to explain to the officers that they had valid visas. It would have been enough for them to accompany them to the hotel to check that they had entered legally in Croatia, "he thunders in the columns of the Guardian .

A spokesman for the Croatian Ministry of the Interior defended the police officers, claiming that they had already been confronted with people participating in sports competitions in order to stay in the country. Their deportation from Chinedi and Uchenna to Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, is not explained.

" These people are victims of illegal acts committed by Croats. In respect of the legal procedures, we must now bring them back to Croatia. It is obvious that they have Croatian visas and that their presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina is illegal. According to their statements, it is obvious that the Croatian police have forcibly removed them, "said Dragan Mektic, the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina, interviewed by Al Jazeera . The leaders of the World InterUniversities Championship, they demand that the two table tennis players can finally return to Nigeria.

Bosnia and Herzegovina faces many problems related to the flow of migrants to Western and Northern Europe. And the conflicts on the border with Croatia are recurrent. In August 2019, 18 migrants were found injured near Velika Kladusa. NGOs claim that the Croatian police are using violence to suppress migrants.