Distressing images of refugees who were ‘tortured, beaten and forced to strip naked by Croatian police’
Distressing images of refugees who were ‘tortured, beaten and forced to strip naked by Croatian police’
Refugees fleeing war were allegedly tortured by police on the Croatian border.
Men were forced to strip, lie on top of each other naked and were beaten by men in black uniforms, according to reports received by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), a nonprofit humanitarian organisation.
The victims believed their attackers were Croatian police officers, according to Mirror Online.
Man rescued in Kano after chained for 30 years by his father
The DRC has also recorded two reports of “severe sexual abuse” after a police operation to push refugees back into neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The violent pushbacks targeted around 75 people in Velika Kladusa, where a forest camp houses at least 700 refugees. The organisation recorded “horrifying” testimony from victims of the police operation between October 12 and 16.
One shocking picture shows an Afghan man’s battered back, arm and buttocks
Another shows someone from Bangladesh with a deep gash to his nose while a Moroccan man has a cut to his forehead.
Charlotte Slente, secretary general of the DRC, said: “The testimonies that the Danish Refugee Council has collected from victims of pushbacks are horrifying.
“Multiple reports, from different groups of people, of different nationalities – more than 75 persons in one week – who have all independently reported inhumane treatment, savage beatings and even sexual abuse.
“We need to see action to put a stop to the systematic use of violence.
“Treating human beings like this, inflicting severe pain and causing unnecessary suffering, irrespective of their migratory status, cannot and should not be accepted by any European country, or by any EU institution.”
Ms Slente called for independent border monitoring systems to be implemented to prevent abuses, along with proper investigations to take place.
