“It was just awful. They took everything from us. And we were brutally beaten,” said migrants beaten and persecuted by Croatian masked police in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The illegal operation was uncovered by investigative journalists.
Loud cries of pain echo in the dense forest along the Croat-Bosnian border. There are blows. The date is June 15, 2021. Five young men run through a bush and rush into the Koran, a border river between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Before that, they apparently passed through a line of people in masks and uniforms who are angry at the fugitives before being illegally expelled from Croatia. One of the masked men skillfully twists a cane in his hand, which beats people to push them out of the EU. His face is hidden under a dark protective helmet.
Every few seconds, black young people walk past him. The man in a mask with the fulfilled movements beats each of them anywhere – on a back, legs, a stomach.
And does the EU pay for this operation?
These shots can be seen in the video taken by the team of the German public and legal television and radio company ARD. For 9 months, ARD investigative journalists worked in collaboration with colleagues from many foreign media outlets. They filmed undercover, spoke with witnesses and analyzed social media profiles to track and document the illegal movement of refugees along the Croat-Bosnian border, DW reports.
It is clear from their investigation that the orders for illegal raids come from Zagreb – this is confirmed by three independent sources from Croatian police circles.
According to the investigation team, the police who are illegally expelling refugees from Croatia are part of the so-called “Corridor” operation, which is being carried out along Croatia’s borders with the EU. Police officers from all over Croatia are taking part in it.
One of the active members of the Corridor described his actions as follows: “When we find migrants somewhere, they usually fall to the ground in fear. Then the policeman takes turns beating them on the legs with a stick. to a police station, deported to Bosnia or given the opportunity to seek asylum. ”
The same source also said that personal belongings were confiscated from the detainees, and some of them were burned in a landfill.
Operation Corridor is partly funded by the EU. Since 2014, Brussels has paid Zagreb almost 177 million euros for “migration management”.