As she was hanging laundry, Thursday, three young men ran up to a woman from Kovanic near Zenica, at around 4 pm, shouting "help, help". At first, she thought they were migrants, but it turned out that they were Turkish citizens who were under unclear circumstances held captive by her neighbour S.J. from Topcic Polje.

The Zenica-Doboj Interior Ministry confirmed for N1 that several Turkish citizens were held in captivity in this canton.

“My pregnant daughter-in-law and I were alone, so I sent them to a neighbour who was at home. They were scared and dirty, in socks, I think only one of them had shoes,” said a local woman who did not want to be in front of the cameras.

She added that she invited her daughter-in-law, who knows English, to translate what happened. And then they realized that they were Turkish citizens.

“There were three of them, but they kept pointing to their fingers that there were four of them and that they were somewhere up the hill,” N1’s interlocutor said, pointing to the hill above the houses in the Kovanici settlement. She added that they heard that the fourth young man was soon found at a nearby construction site.

The woman added that the Turkish citizens immediately asked that they call the police and the Turkish consulate and that they said they had no documents.

Finally, she said they gave them socks and shoes. They regret not giving them clothes to change.