Croatia
Leaked police chats
13.04.2023
Croatia
Just when you think it can’t get any worse, a fake police chat comes from somewhere.
Photos of people tied up, faces on the floor, some without shoes – Whatsapp messages from over 30 officials of the Zagreb Interior Ministry prove the practice of illegal deportations from Croatia to Bosnia between 2019 and 2020.
In the Whatsapp group of 33 Croatian police officers, which included the head of the border administration, not only were horrendously degrading photos of a total of 1,337 migrants shared, but also further procedures were discussed. Among other things, it was about 80 people from Pakistan who were arrested near Zagreb and who are brought back to Bosnia and Herzegovina in vans. This is not only inhumane, but also clearly illegal. And the head of the border administration? Send the “clapping hands” emoji to praise the police action.
A total of 60 screenshots of Whatsapp messages written between August 2019 and February 2020 were leaked to the NGO Lighthouse Reports.
Croatia had always denied illegal pushbacks although NGOs like @sos_balkanroute have been collecting and publishing reports for years.
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