The 94-page report, “‘Like We Were Just Animals’: Pushbacks of People Seeking Protection from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina,” finds that Croatian authorities engage in pushbacks, including of unaccompanied children and families with young children. The practice is ongoing despite official denials, purported monitoring efforts, and repeated – and unfulfilled – commitments to respect the right to seek asylum and other human rights norms. Border police frequently steal or destroy phones, money, identity documents, and other personal property, and often subject children and adults to humiliating and degrading treatment, sometimes in ways that are explicitly racist.
Reacting to today’s judgement by the European Court of Human Rights that Croatia violated the rights of Madina Hussiny, a six-year-old girl who was hit and killed by a train after being pushed back to Serbia in 2017, Massimo Morratti, Deputy Director for Europe at Amnesty International, said: “This is a huge victory for justice […]
Along the Balkan route, refugees and volunteers face growing hostility
A policeman stands by as a group of migrants wait to be relocated during heavy snowfall at the temporary Lipa Camp in north-west Bosnia, near the border with Croatia, on 26 December 2020. Three days earlier, much of the camp was destroyed in a fire, leaving over 1,000 people stranded outdoors.
(AP/Kemal Softić
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A policeman stands by as a group of migrants wait to be relocated during heavy snowfall at the temporary Lipa Camp in north-west Bosnia, near the border with Croatia, on 26 December 2020. Three days earlier, much of the camp was destroyed in a fire, leaving over 1,000 people stranded outdoors.