The police in Karlovac will forward to the police authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina criminal reports by nine illegal migrants who were physically assaulted and robbed on Friday in BiH territory by a group of unidentified men, the Karlovac police said on Monday.

Among the migrants attacked in BiH territory is a 22-year-old Afghan who is in bad shape with a visible head injury.

The Karlovac Police department said in a statement that while patrolling the border area on 11 August, Croatian police found in the area of Cetingrad, close to the border with BiH, nine foreign nationals who had illegally crossed the border into Croatia.

An investigation showed that the illegal migrants had run into four unidentified men in a forest in BiH territory, who attacked them.

The attackers used force and threatened them with firearms and knives and took their money, mobile phones, bags with clothes and other belongings, the police said.

After that, the attackers took the migrants to an abandoned house, from where they managed to escape and arrived on foot in Croatia, the Croatian police said, noting that they would request international police cooperation on the case.

All of the illegal migrants, foreign nationals, have sought asylum in Croatia.