A Syrian refugee who secretly filmed Croatian border guards beating his travel companions is to take Croatia’s authorities to the European court of human rights in the first challenge to its practice of pushbacks into Bosnia.
“I couldn’t forget that experience at the border,” says Sami Barkal. “I made that video because I wanted people to understand what was happening to us and how they play with our lives as if they are worth nothing. What else can we do to make it stop? So I really have hopes in the court. Do we really want borders with walls, violence and pushbacks? Or do we want to find a more humane way?”
