The Croatian police officers were accused of violence against illegal refugees. They reported beatings, flogging, robberies and even cases of sexual assault, The Guardian reports.
The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has called on the European Union to investigate and intervene after finding that more than 75 people have reported inhuman treatment by Croatian law enforcement officers on the border with Bosnia over the past week. There are minors among the victims.
Human rights activists learned about the incident with Afghan migrants on 12 October. After crossing the border illegally, they were detained, one of them managed to escape, the rest were humiliated: their personal belongings were taken and burned, they were forced to undress, beaten and flogged. One of them had traces of sexual violence: it is reported that the police used a tree branch for this.
A native of Pakistan said that he was also beaten and deported, threatening that next time he would be treated much more cruelly.
As the newspaper notes, this is not the first such case: in May, a group of migrants was beaten and robbed by police. After that, a red cross was painted on the head of each of them with a spray paint – for the purpose of humiliation.
Brussels has already reacted to repeated incidents with the Croatian police and promised to carefully investigate each case. Representatives of the Croatian authorities made the same assurances.
