Croatian Interior Ministry (MUP) denied information by Serbia’s Commissariat for Refugees and Migration about the alleged torture of the migrants, saying the police only protected the border, but people who N1 talked to in the refugee centre in Sid in northern Serbia said they were tormented by the police.
Even minors say they have experienced beatings and electroshocks. The testimony of a 16-year-old boy from Afghanistan prompted the Commissariat to publish his story and Croatian MUP to deny saying the accusations were unfounded.
However, the claims are supported by testimonies, photos, and medical documents.
The migrants N1 talked to said their phones were taken away; they were deprived of water, a man was kicked in front of his son with disability…
A girl is said to have sought psychological help and is on medicines after the police treatment.
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In a shelter in the Serbian town of Sid, which houses only families, some five to six such testimonies were recorded since December 2018, while in the nearby Principovac centre for single people more were certified.
A man from Morocco said he was beaten by four policemen at the same time. Some others came back from the borders with a skull fracture, broken legs, and bruised bodies, claiming that as some occasions police fired above their heads.
However, Croatian police say they are determined to protect the country's border and the external European Union frontier, and that they have prevented almost nine and a half thousand illegal crossings since the beginning of 2019, or 200 percent more than last year.
