Pushed to the edge: Violence and abuse against refugees and migrants along Balkan Route

This report sheds light on human rights violations against refugees and migrants along the Western Balkans route, focusing on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia. It finds that widespread pushbacks and collective expulsions – often accompanied with violence – and routine denial of access to asylum are a regular occurrence on the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. They are also a part of the systemic and deliberate policy of the Croatian authorities to discourage future irregular entries and demonstrate that Croatia can effectively protect the EU’s external border. Similar trend of pushbacks and collective expulsions has been documented on the Slovenian and, to a lesser degree, Italian borders.