Report on the Performance of Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism for 2015 However, they could hold only a small number of persons, and families often rejected such accommodation for fear of separation. Further, considering that refugees could not move between sections on their own, and there were not enough volunteers to find mothers with small children in order to take them to heated containers, sometimes they would wait for a bus in the cold and rain in unheated tents. The systematic separation of Systematic exclusion vulnerable groups was not organized at the time of boarding of of vulnerable groups buses, so police officers brought vulnerable groups to the front only was not organized at if they saw them. the time of boarding of UNICEF organized a play area for children, as well as psychosocial buses, so police support and counselling for mothers with small children, and officers brought provided them with hygiene packages and children’s clothes. In the vulnerable groups to beginning, there were no toilets for people with disability in the first row only if Opatovac Camp, but that was resolved later. Further, wheelchairs they saw them. were provided at the border crossing of Bapska, so that people with mobility problems and people with disability could be taken from the border to the bus, in agreement with Croatian and Serbian police officers and with support of UNHCR. The Transit Centre in SB was completely adapted for the accommodation of vulnerable groups (special containers for mothers and babies, toilets for people with disability, wheelchairs, etc.). At the time of registration, families with small children, pregnant women and people with disability generally had priority. Cases of children who were separated from their families during the journey were recorded, and so were cases of children who had decided to take the journey on their own, so Ministry of Social Policy and Youth staff were assigned to both camps to ensure the immediate appointment of special guardians and accommodation in an appropriate institution until reunification with parents or relatives. Transport of refugees and the situation at the border crossings In the first days of the arrival of refugees, when there was still no agreement on transit with the neighbouring states, transport was not fully organized, so certain groups travelled at their own cost. At the same time, in Tovarnik, several hundred metres from the railway station, several hundred, even thousands people waited throughout the night or for hours in the sun to board buses. After the opening of Opatovac Camp, free transport by bus and train was organized to the Hungarian border. At the Botovo border crossing, the organization was excellent, and police officers, medical teams, interpreters and volunteers made sure that transport was as humane as possible, without jeopardizing the safety/security of refugees and Croatian citizens. Many people refused medical assistance and hospital treatment, although they needed it, because they wanted to continue their journey as soon as possible. 49