Refugees crossing from Bosnia 'beaten and robbed by Croatian police'

According to the testimony of migrants and monitoring groups, the Croatian police force is engaging in a systematic campaign of violence and theft against migrants and refugees attempting to find a route to western Europe through the country.
 The Guardian spoke to dozens of men in the Bosnian border towns of Velika Kladuša and Bihać, who said they had been subjected to violence at the hands of Croatian police after crossing into the country. Most women interviewed said they had not been targeted, but had witnessed attacks on men in their groups, although a minority of women said they had been beaten or strip-searched.
 Many people had mobile phones with mangled charger sockets and cracked screens, damage caused by the Croatian police, they said. Others said police had stolen their phones and large sums of money. In all cases, Croatian police drove people back to the border in the night and pushed them back to Bosnia.
 Last year, there were fewer than 1,000 migrant arrivals to Bosnia, but this year the Balkan country has seen at least 9,000. Most of them are from Afghanistan, Iran and Syria, and the majority have been on the road for two or three years, often spending time stranded in Turkey or Serbia and determined to press on to their final destination, which for most is Germany.
 As other routes to western Europe have been closed off, Croatian police have emerged as the EU’s gatekeepers.

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