For 21-year-old Sarfraz Ali, the border manifests itself in scars left on his hands from beatings. He was one of the residents of the recently demolished Vučjak migrant camp, in northwest Bosnia near the Croatian border.
It took the Pakistani boy six months and seven thousand euros to get to Bosnia from Pakistan, travelling about five thousand kilometers through Iran, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, and Serbia. Then, beaten up by Croatian border police, he couldn’t go any further. He’s been waiting in Bosnia for more than two months, though in the meantime he’s also tried to reach Italy five times. Others have tried up to fifteen times.
Like Ali, sixteen-year-old Muzamil was forcibly pushed back by Croatian police. Muzamil is, like twenty percent of refugees travelling the Balkan route, a minor. His feet are wrapped in gauze, his eyes dismayed. "The Croatian police arrested me, beat me, took my shoes, my money, my phone. I returned to the camp almost naked".
