BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA JUNE 2020

INTRODUCTION Pushbacks from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) continued unabated throughout June 2020, despite growing media coverage and multiple recent persons* reports of violations and abuses at the border. The pushbacks from Croatia reporting pushbacks recorded by DRC’s protection monitoring staff in June 2020, show not only an increased number of pushbacks from Croatia (1,646 in June compared to 1,361 to BiH since May in May), and continuous practices of rights violations. No episodes of extreme 2019 violence – as reported in May – have been recorded in the past month. The rate of physical abuse seems to have statistically decreased. Still, physical abuse was reported in more than a half of recorded cases in June 2020.

Despite the growing attention on the malpractices reported at the EU’s external borders, the numbers do not indicate any progress with regards to ending the pushbacks. Pushbacks have been ostensibly widely accepted as an effective means for managing migration movements in the EU and in the Western Balkans region, while little effort has been made to strengthen effective legal pathways for persons in need of international protection, or for safe returns to third countries. Only two persons reported to the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) that they had been returned from Croatia to BiH though the readmission procedures, compared to 1,646 reporting pushbacks. Close to 200 persons interviewed by DRC in BiH reported experiencing pushback along the route – from Greece to Turkey (1 person), from North Macedonia to Greece (79), from Serbia to North Macedonia (82) and from BiH to Serbia/Montenegro (38).

The aforementioned data indicates that – while pushbacks may slow down the movement of people – they do not prevent it nor end onwards movement. Pushbacks, nevertheless, expose people to increased protection risks and make them more prone to risking their lives to continue their journey. The tacit approval of pushbacks, combined with the absence of effective solutions, effective monitoring and accountability mechanisms, the rights violations (including physical abuses) mount.

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MONTHLY SNAPSHOT JUNE 2020 Pushbacks from Croatia to BiH continued to be reported throughout June 2020, with a total of 1,646 pushbacks recorded by DRC teams over the course of the persons* month. reporting pushbacks Comparing to May, a further increase in the number of women and children to BiH in the month reporting pushbacks was recorded. Out of all interviewees in June, 85% were of June 2020 adult men (1,400 persons), 4% adult women, including women travelling alone (68 persons), and more than 10% were children – 80 boys,61 girls travelling with their family members and 37 unaccompanied and separated children (UASCs).

61 37 68 80 Men (18+) Boys (0-17) Women (18+) Girls (0-17) 1400 UASC (0-17)

Chain pushbacks Out of 1,646 persons reporting pushbacks to BiH in June 2020, 153 persons reported being expelled from Slovenia through Croatia to BiH, while an additional 14 persons reported being pushed back from Italy, through Slovenia and Croatia, to BiH. As in previous months, the majority of interviewees reported going through formal registration procedures in Italy and Slovenia. Three persons from Pakistan reported that they had been pushed back from Italy to Slovenia, and from Slovenia to Croatia, without going through any form of registration. Two

| 2 interviewees from Iran reported experiencing violence by Slovenian police, once apprehended. The majority of remaining interviewees reported practices similar to those described in the following statement given by three persons (two from Pakistan and one from Bangladesh) on 6 June 2020: We arrived to Trieste, in Italy. At the bus station in Trieste the police arrested us and transported us to a “ police station. In the police station, we asked about asylum; the police took our fingerprints and gave us some papers to sign. Then, they placed us in the car and we thought that they would drive us to some reception center. After a while we realized that they were driving us to the border with Slovenia. The Italian police handed us over to the Slovenian police, who also took our fingerprints and gave us papers to sign. We did not know what we signed. We spent the day in Slovenia, after which the Slovenian police drove us to the Croatian border and handed us over to the Croatian police. Croatian police transported us to the border with BiH and somewhere on the way they stopped and took 11 more persons and drove us all together to the border. The drive lasted for about 3.5 hours. When we arrived close to the border, police started beating us and directed us to go in the direction of BiH. We crossed the border close to Glinica village. The Croatian police did not take our personal belongings. During the interview, the DRC Protection Officers recorded that the interviewees had visible injuries, consistent with those caused by beatings. Three families from Afghanistan, including 12 family members in total (three adult men, two women and seven children – the youngest two 1 and 2 years old) were the only interviewees reporting the presence of a translator during their interview in Italy (Trieste): We were arrested near the border with Italy, near Trieste, on June 10. They saw us with a drone. The police “ brought us to the police station, interrogated us with an interpreter for Pashtu and Farsi. The police took our statements and wrote the fines that we signed. We spent one night at the station. We sought asylum and asked for the opportunity to talk to representatives of international organizations, but were denied. They gave us some food, mostly biscuits and water. They took our money (about 100 EUR), mobile phones and SIM cards, and they also took earrings from a ten-year-old girl. The next day, when they took us to Croatia, they only returned our mobile phones. The Croatian police took us to the border with BiH on the evening of June 11, and a police officer with a dog forced us to go towards the border with BiH. These three families arrived at the gates of Temporary Reception Center (TRC) Miral (Velika Kladusa, BiH) around 9am on Friday, 12 June, 2020. They walked from Glinica village (Velika Kladusa, BiH), where they reported that the pushback took place on the evening of Thursday 11 June. Interviewees that reported seeking asylum in Italy or Slovenia (76 persons) mentioned either having their requests ignored or being told that they should seek asylum in Croatia or Germany. A 19-member group that included eight UASCs, interviewed on 11 June in TRC Bira (Bihac, BiH), reported the following: We heard that if you reach more than 20 kilometers inside Slovenia and you ask for asylum you will get “ it. We were waiting for police to seek for asylum. At that time, the weather was bad and heavy rain was falling. After some time, some 15 Slovenian police officers surrounded us, five in regular police uniforms, five from special units, and five that were without uniforms but were equipped with police belts, batons and pistols. The officers were pointing weapons at us, saying: “Sit down, it’s police! “. The police ordered us to follow them to vehicles. There were two blue vans on which was written POLICIJA […]. At the police station, the police took our personal belongings (money, phones and power banks) and started asking our names, country of origin, how long we were in Slovenia, etc. We asked for asylum and the officers were smiling and answered that they cannot give us asylum and that we should go to Zagreb where the situation is better. The police photographed us, took our fingerprints and asked us to sign some papers. After interrogation, they put us all in one room and gave us some food […]. I injured my leg during the walk through forests and jungles and it was infected. I asked | 3

for medical assistance. The police provided me with a doctor who just applied some bandages, without proper treatment or even cleaning the wound. In the morning, the police returned our phones and power banks, but not our money. […] After that, they put us in vans and drove us for approximately 2 hours to reach the border with Croatia. The Slovenian police handed us over to Croatian police on border. The Croatian police wrote down our names and photographed us with our names on papers. We asked for asylum, which the Croatian police just ignored. The police took away our personal belongings (ID cards, papers, phones, power banks) and placed all of us into one van. The transport lasted for about 6 hours. On 9 June 2020, around 4pm, we arrived near the border with BiH, near Glinica village [Velika Kladusa]. There were five police officers. They told us to leave the van one by one and started beating us with batons. We ran into the woods. We managed to run through these five officers, but suddenly other officers that were hiding behind trees jumped in front of us and started beating us with batons. One officer hit one minor’s head with a baton. The child fell down unconscious while the officer just moved away from him […] Only 11 persons, out of 167 reporting pushbacks through Slovenia and Croatia to BiH, reported being registered in both Slovenia and Croatia, while the aforementioned 19 persons reported having their pictures with names taken. The practice as described in the testimony, could be a formal registration procedure, but it is unclear from the description itself whether this is effectively the case. As recorded in previous months, none of the interviewed persons reported being “handed over” by Croatian authorities to BiH authorities; all of them stated that they were forced to cross the border to BiH irregularly.

HEATMAP OF PUSHBACK LOCATIONS, JUNE 2020

Theft and destruction of property, abusive and degrading treatment, physical violence Rights violations continue to largely accompany pushbacks. Only 44 persons, out of 1,646 interviewees reporting pushback to BiH, reported that they had “just been pushed back”, stating that they had not experienced any other human rights violation.

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The statistical overview of the rates of rights violations remains, nevertheless, similar to previous months, with lower rates of reported arrest and detention, and physical abuse, but increasing rates of abusive and degrading treatment.

# OF PERSONS REPORTING SPECIFIC TYPE OF VIOLENCE DURING PUSHBACK INCIDENT

16% 26% 52% 72% 83%

Arbitrary arrest Denial of access to Physical abuse/ Abusive/degrading Theft, extortion or or detention asylum procedure assault treatment destruction of property

Asylum was explicitly sought by, and denied for, 251 persons, in Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. Usually, the interviewees reported their requests just being ignored, while some of those requesting asylum reported being addressed with negative or insulting remarks such as “Ask for asylum in Bosnia!” or "You are Muslims and you have no rights, and you came to Slovenia illegally!". A new development, recorded in three separate incidents in June 2020, involving six families (34 family members in total), families tried to contact “a help number” to seek asylum in Croatia. Other families referred to the number as “the IOM number” or “the Help Center” number. Families apprehended close to Cetingrad (Croatia) reported writing to what they called “the IOM number”: […] We received an answer from the number that in case the police shows up, we just need to show the “ message and someone from that organization will came to the police station and pick us up. But when the police came they were very rude and when we showed the messages on our cell phones the police immediately confiscated all the phones. They placed us in vans and brought us to the border line with Bosnia, near Sturlic village […] All families that contacted the number were pushed back to BiH. Two families reported to DRC that “by calling this number, many families stayed in Croatia”. The most frequent rights violation reported by those pushed back, before and in June 2020, continues to be theft, extortion and destruction of property. In June 2020, the vast majority (1,377) of interviewees were during the pushbacks deprived of their valuables and other personal items, including personal identification documents. Even in cases when interviewees reportedly indicating to the police that their passports were being destroyed in the backpacks set on fire, they were not allowed to retrieve them. In an interview conducted with a group pushed back from Croatia on 10 June, in Sturlic village (BiH), four men from Syria reported the following: […] the Croatian Border Police took our personal belongings and burned everything. We told them that we “ had passports inside our bags but they did not want to react. We were beaten again because we repeated that our passports were in the bags. The Border Police took our shoes, jackets and pushed us back to Bosnia. What has been reported by 121 persons in June is that their personal belongings, namely cellphones, were taken away and placed inside plastic bags. In several cases, interviewees reported that when the cellphones were confiscated by the “special police”, they handed over the phones to the border police. None of the interviewees

| 5 was aware of what happened to their cellphones, but a few that suspected that the border police took the phones for themselves. In two separate incidents involving a total 16 family members, families reported that the police first “erased everything” from their phones and only then returned them: […] one police officer tried to take my backpack, but when I started crying telling him that there was food “ and diapers for baby inside, he returned everything. The only thing that the police did was that they erased everything from our phones […] As the majority of the incidents reported, happened outside of official premises, in the fields, in the woods and on the roads, entailing the lack of formal registration, interview, processing, and relevant documentation issuing, majority of persons that could possibly document their whereabouts or the misconduct that took place, were deprived of their cellphones during pushbacks. The practice of setting bags and other property items, that were retained or destroyed, on fire was also commonly reported. Further, interviewees mentioned as well that their clothes and shoes, including their shoelaces, were taken away from them on several occasions. 42 of the interviewees described the humiliating treatment of being forced to cross the border only in their underwear. Abusive and degrading treatment was reported by 962 interviewees. In addition, 753 interviewees reported physical abuse, mostly including beatings with batons and kicking. Interviewees reported being forced into river crossings, when they informed the police, law enforcement officers and military personnel that they could not swim: […] They ordered us to exit the vehicle. There were two more police officers. Again they pepper sprayed “ us, started beating us with batons and forced us to go in the direction of the river. They forced us to cross the border through the river. [One of the interviewees] does not know how to swim and he started suffocating. We got him out of the water, and for the next half hour he was unconscious. […] Interviewees (53 of them) also reported that, while they were in police vans, the police were driving the vans violently and very fast, that they had no air supply, and felt nausea and vomited. Interviewees could clearly report and confirm the involvement of Italian, Slovenian and Croatian uniformed personnel. They were also DRC Protection and Medical Teams able to differentiate between military personnel, local police, special continue providing immediate police and border police. They could identify law enforcement assistance to persons experiencing personnel uniforms, their color and emblems, or some of the items, pushbacks to BiH. In June 2020, such as weapon and holsters. Describing one of the incidents, DRC teams assisted 943 persons interviewees identified uniformed personnel with the markings “EPZ” experiencing pushbacks with (Ekipa za posebne zadaće / Special police unit). Many of the distribution of food and 197 interviewees reported meeting large groups of uniformed personnel, persons with non-food items. involving 10 or more persons. Additionally, 95 people were provided with medical first aid by As reported in previous months, military personnel (in Italy, Slovenia mobile teams, and 172 were and Croatia) and local police were mainly involved in identifying referred to DRC infirmaries for interviewees and alerting other authorities (usually border police). follow-up medical care; 2 persons When it comes to the actual pushback incidents, interviewees were referred to free legal aid. identified border police or special police forces (in Croatia only) as .assistance. those involved in the pushbacks, and usually the violence committed.

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OVERALL TRENDS 2019-2020 Migration flows and pushbacks were significantly affected by the COVID-19 crisis as of March 2020. As a result, figures for March do not necessarily reflect overall trends:

2000 1731 1765 1800 1641 1646 1545 1600 1485 1361 1400

1200

1000 926 754 800 626 600 396 400 248 200

0 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

# of persons

Note: DRC began systematizing data collection (incident reports) related to pushbacks in the course of 2019, with the progressive deployment of outreach teams in BiH since May 2019; this ensures accurate recording following daily coverage in all areas where asylum seekers and migrants report pushbacks to BiH.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, DRC has significantly scaled up the humanitarian health response for refugees and migrants in BiH. DRC has developed preparedness and response planning, in coordination with the BiH health authorities and other agencies, including:  establishment of isolation areas for COVID-19 prevention in migrant reception centers;  information dissemination on prevention of COVID-19;  procurement of personal protective equipment for humanitarian staff and healthcare workers;  support to healthcare facilities through provision of essential medical equipment;  development of protocols for screening, identification and referral to healthcare of COVID-19 cases within the refugee and migrant community. DRC strongly advocates for equitable access to primary and secondary healthcare for asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants affected by COVID-19. As of 13 July 2020, no cases of COVID-19 have been identified in reception centers in BiH. DRC publishes weekly Situation Reports on COVID-19 preparedness and response: DRC BiH COVID-19 Situation Reports.

GLOBAL APPEAL Danish Refugee Council | Protecting Displaced during the COVID-19 Crisis

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* The number of persons reporting pushbacks does not necessarily represent the number of unique individuals, as the same individual(s) may experience repeated pushbacks to BiH. However, repeated cases represent distinct instances of pushbacks. Each pushback is recorded as a separate case.

Border Protection Monitoring (BPM) is an integral part of the Danish Refugee Council’s humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers and migrants in out-of-site locations in BiH. DRC operates outreach protection teams and mobile medical teams – in partnership with the Red Cross (RC) of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – in Una-Sana, Sarajevo, Herzegovina-Neretva and Tuzla Cantons, and in Republika Srpska. In addition to border protection monitoring, the DRC and RC outreach teams ensure identification, profiling and referral of vulnerable individuals and groups, provision of medical first aid, and immediate assistance (food and other essential items such as winter clothing) for asylum seekers and migrants without access to formal accommodation and essential services. The outreach response complements the DRC health and protection program implemented in all reception facilities in BiH. For additional information, please contact Nicola Bay, Country Director, [email protected]. Photo credit: DRC, June 2020 (injured migrant receiving assistance by DRC and Red Cross Outreach Teams).

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