ZAGREB: Croatian authorities said on Saturday they had “no information” about claims that police severely beat dozens of migrants and pushed them back to Bosnia earlier this week.

Rights groups and independent media have repeatedly accused Croatian police of illegally forcing migrants back over the European Union’s external border, notably to Bosnia.

The authorities have generally denied such allegations.

Austrian humanitarian organization SOS Balkanroute said Croatian police had beaten and forcibly pushed back 53 migrants into Bosnia on Wednesday.

Five of the migrants sustained broken arms or legs and head injuries in the incident, it said in a statement released on Friday.

According to migrants’ accounts around 15 masked Croatian police officers beat anyone who moved, the organization said, calling it “one of the most brutal cases of border violence” it had documented in recent months.

Croatian Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Saturday that police had only heard about the incident from media reports.

“We have no such information, nor have we received any official notification from the Bosnian authorities, primarily the police,” he said.

The organization’s founder Petar Rosandic said the incident was not isolated, describing violence at the EU’s external borders as “systematic.”

“This can no longer be swept under the rug by the Croatian authorities, the media, the EU and Austrian politicians,” he told AFP.

The 53 migrants — who came from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sudan and Pakistan — included three women and two children, the charity said. They were found in six separate groups along Bosnia’s northwestern border.

Croatia, which guards one of the EU’s longest external land borders, is a major transit country for undocumented migrants trying to enter the bloc through the Balkans.

EU border agency Frontex said more than 12,500 irregular border-crossing detections were recorded along the route last year, down 42 percent from 2024.