Footage of border officers enacting violent pushbacks

Shocking images were published in the German and Swiss media in November 2020 showing a man in agony after he had been whipped by Croatian border officers and expelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). This was some of the first published video evidence of Croatian officers enacting violent pushbacks after years of reporting on a practice consistently denied by the state. The man in the footage, I.M., is now seeking justice before the UN Human Rights Committee against Croatia and Slovenia for multiple violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), with the support of ECCHR.

After surviving a bombing in the conflict-ridden Pakistani-administered state of Azad-Kashmir, I.M. left for Europe. On the way, he was subjected to multiple violent pushbacks from Croatia back to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), including a chain pushback from Slovenia.

In March 2020, I.M. entered Croatia in a group and walked for several days. The group crossed into Slovenia and was officially detained by police who refused to register their asylum claims, or allow them access to lawyers or other assistance, and made them sign papers they did not understand. Without a chance to challenge his expulsion or claim protection, I.M. was officially handed over to Croatian authorities who drove the group off in vans. At the Bosnian border masked Croatian officers forced the group to strip off their clothing, then burned their belongings. I.M. was beaten using a hand-made tool, then dragged by his neck to a river and forced to jump in. 

A companion managed to film I.M. directly after this pushback into BiH which led to an investigation of the footage by Jack Sapoch who was working with the NGO No Name Kitchen, as well as Der Spiegel and SRF (Swiss Radio and Television). The footage shows the responsible officers in the background beating other people before expelling them to BiH with NNK’s analysis and matches parts of the officers’ uniforms with those of Croatian law enforcement units. 

Before the UN Human Rights Committee, I.M. filed complaints against Croatia for his ill-treatment, and against both Croatia and Slovenia for his expulsions, the lack of effective remedy and the deliberate obstruction of his access to his rights or legal safeguards, violating articles 7, 2(3) and 16 CCPR. He is represented by Carsten Gericke with prior legal support from Iza Thaler. 

Croatia has been implementing a state policy of pushbacks since 2016 which has been widely documented by NGOs, journalists and human rights institutions. These pushback operations are unchecked and covert, involve extreme violence and are enacted with complete impunity. Despite this, Croatia’s accession to the Schengen zone in 2023 was explicitly coupled with the expectation to reduce migration towards the EU across its external borders. 

Slovenia reactivated a readmission agreement with Croatia in June 2018 which enabled returns of people on the move in a fast-track procedure. The subsequent sharp increase in expulsions to Croatia, along with a fall in registered asylum claims at its borders, reveals how Slovenia has used the agreement to limit access to protection. These readmissions can be understood as paper pushbacks, since they do not allow for an individualized assessment of a person’s circumstances and in practice are unchallengeable, implemented without necessary legal safeguards. In particular, the high risk of ill-treatment at the hands of Croatian officers is completely ignored.