The organization No Name Kitchen (NNK) this week said an investigation conducted between October 2023 and August 2024 had found evidence of secret sites where Croatian border police had destroyed the personal belongings of migrants trying to cross and seek asylum in the European Union.
In a report entitled ‘Burned Borders’, the activist group accuses authorities in Croatia of employing “a systematic and brutal modus operandi” against migrants, including stripping them of their belongings to burn in front of them.
The report identifies the locations of eight ‘burn piles’ in Croatia, where personal items were allegedly destroyed.
“Hundreds of melted phones, remnants of clothing, backpacks, shoes, passports and … folders which usually hold people’s official documents used to apply for asylum” were among the items found at the burn sites, according to NNK.
Esme, Border Violence Reference at NNK told InfoMigrants: “After so much physical, psychological, and administrative violence at the hands of the European border regime, forcing people to watch their belongings burnt in front of them must be understood as a part of a broader attempt to strip people of their autonomy, dehumanise them, and deprive them of remaining connections to culture and identity.”