Two Croatian refugee groups, the 'Welcome!' initiative and Are You Syrious?, have released their report on systematic human rights violations in the closed areas of the Slavonski Brod migrant camp in eastern Croatia.

The groups stressed that the fate of the refugees who are forcibly detained in the so-called winter reception and transit center in Slavonski Brod is unknown to them and the public. Therefore, they believe that these people are literally trapped and that they have only one option to escape that repressive and dehumanized environment: to seek asylum.

"In recent months, people of all ages, nationalities and countries of origin were forcibly detained in the different sections of the winter reception and transit center in Slavonski Brod. They were held under strict police supervision, in complete uncertainty, and they were systematically intimidated," says Sara Kekuš from the "Welcome!" initiative.

"They stopped me in Dobova, although I had Syrian passport. The same Egyptian translator (person N. mentions the same translator from the testimony of a person identified only as A.) took me out of the line. They stripped me naked during the search and interrogated me for six hours. The translator told me that I have to go back to Turkey. I was arrested in Dobova and they brought me back to Slavonski Brod. Same as A., I have spent several days in detention there. I decided to seek asylum in Croatia so I could leave the reception center in Slavonski Brod. The police told me that I will end up in jail if I give up my request for asylum. Then I was taken to the reception center in Kutina, together with A. and other people from the camp", says N., a 33-year-old from Syria.

"Although the government is persistently warning us that there is a system of corridor stretching from Greece to Germany, and that the decisions are made far away from the places where people are trapped, we want to remind them that the established method of deciding about the fate of humans — a kind of political and legal 'supra-system' — doesn't provide amnesty for Croatian authorities regarding human right violations and disrespect for national or international law. We demand that they establish and take responsibility for their actions. Also, we demand that they allow the volunteers, who have been working with the refugees for six months now, and also the NGOs that can provide legal assistance and implement monitoring, to access the closed sections of the camp as soon as possible," said Iva Marčetić, one of the authors of the report.

"They are changing the rules of the game during the game. These rules are changing in a way to make it impossible to help the people, but we will continue with our work. They will pass through Croatia in the future and we will be there for them," concludes Luka Juranić from Are you Syrious?

The detailed report and refugees testimonies are available here.