Isaac from Sierra Leone and Rory from Jamaica are seeking a better life in Zagreb.

Dramatic scenes took place on Thursday when asylum seekers refused to be removed from the asylum centre in Zagreb to another in Kutina, 80 kilometres away, to make way for the people arrivng on the border with Serbia.

The asylum seekers from Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Ukraine and other countries, some of them in Croatia for three years now, refused to go to the centre in Kutina, which before served as a refugee crisis reserved only for women with children.

They said that they do not want to move from Zagreb, since they “have their lives here” in terms of temporary employment, friends and connections.

Police said they would be moved by force and cannot stay in the park next to the asylum centre, either.

After more than 5,000 refugees entered Croatia on Wednesday alone, the Croatian authorities were trying to register and make room for all of them before letting them continue their journey towards Western Europe.

Isaac from Sierra Leone told BIRN that he came to Croatia in 2013 and wants to stay and find work.

“I am an expert in karate and other martial arts. I want to train people. I already have some contacts here in Zagreb,” Isaac said with frustration in his voice.

“I have something to show; my talent and work. They will kill me if they send me to Kutina. I can’t find a job there and can’t commute on a daily basis, since it is too expensive,” he said.

Desperation is present, as some of the asylum seekers want to stay in Zagreb, but have no place to stay.

“Why are they moving us? Why are they doing it?” he asked desperately.

“If Croatia really doesn’t want me here, I’ll go somewhere else. Germany, The Netherlands, France, wherever,” he concluded.

With equal frustration, but more calmness in his voice, Rory from Jamaica told BIRN how the decision to move them from the Zagreb centre was relayed.

“They just told us yesterday during lunch that they were moving us. There was no discussion, no notice. Nobody wants to talk with us, only Red Cross volunteers are trying to help us. We’re the side-effect of the whole refugee crisis,” he said.

He said that there was no need to “kick them out”, since two floors of the asylum centre in Zagreb were empty.

Asylum seekers in the park.

“If the authorities are afraid to mix us up with the refugees [coming to Croatia], as they claim, they should lock us on one floor. We don’t mind, just don’t kick us out,” he said almost bitterly.

He said that in recent years he had gone to court in Croatia, after filing charges against the Croatian police for maltreatment.

“Once I said to a policeman: ‘I am more a Croat than you are, since I obey and respect the laws of this country.’ I want to be a proper citizen. Is this is the way Croatia treats me?” he asked.

Rory did not want to specify his reasons for asylum, which he has been seeking from 2012, adding that some groups, like homosexuals, have legal problems on Jamaica. Homosexual acts there are sanctioned by prison sentences of up to ten years.

“I am applying for asylum in Croatia for the third time. I know Croatian laws and I know that I have the right to it… every night I go to bed and imagine that asylum. I know I’ll get it, it’s just a matter of time,” he said.

In the end, the men said they would most likely stay with friends in Zagreb, trying to register their residence in Zagreb and continue their search for a better future.