'They burn so that we don't return'

Croatian border police are burning migrants’ personal belongings before illegally pushing them back into Bosnia.

These brutal, underhand tactics have been adopted to deter migrants from attempting to enter the country and the European Union – and to remove their ability to try again. According to a new report from the humanitarian organization No Name Kitchen (NNK), Croatian police work under cover of the dense, dark forest, wearing black balaclavas to burn clothing, legal documents, passports, shoes and phones. The report includes detailed testimonies from informants as well as photographic evidence gathered at eight large ‘burn sites’ at the Croatia-Bosnia border.

A pregnant Moroccan woman cited in the report says she was apprehended, assaulted and then illegally pushed back into Bosnia by Croatian police in December 2023. ‘The police told me: “You can see the flashes, you can see the light of Bosnia, you can go now.”  [The officer] then took out his gun and fired three bullets into the ground. We started running… I looked back and I saw them putting a fire to our bags. My certificate of marriage was there… I lost everything.’

Many migrants attempting the popular Balkan route come from south Asia, the Middle East and north Africa where they have fled war, genocide, climate crises and poverty. They found their way to this last border crossing in Bosnia having made the crossing from Turkey through neighbouring countries like Greece, Bulgaria or Serbia. At all points along the way, it is made quite clear to migrants and refugees that their presence is not wanted and they are often met with violence.

Pushbacks, the process by which border police illegally detain and return people across frontiers without any legal due process, is the norm in EU border operations. This is in spite of the EU Charter of Fundamental Human Rights prohibiting collective expulsions, and banning deportation to countries where people they face serious risks.

Since 2018, NNK has been recording the testimonies of migrants along the Balkan route to shed light on rights violations and abuse. The destruction of possessions is another tactic within this web of violence and exclusion that denies people the means to asylum by burning the very materials they need to apply: their documents, IDs and passports.

‘Croatian police are a problem, a very big problem,’ said another informant in the report. ‘They treated us like dogs.’

Safe migration routes need to be established and EU nation states need to respect conventions and laws regarding refugee rights in order to put an end to police violence and illegal pushbacks. Both international refugee law and the EU Charter stipulate non-refoulement, a prohibition on collective expulsions and a guarantee of the right to asylum.

Until then, the futures of people on the move are turning to ash. According to one NNK informant in Bosnia: ‘They burn so that we don’t return.’

— Masa Nazzal

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