In January, the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) shared 18 testimonies of pushbacks impacting 172 people on the move (POM) across the Balkans and Greece. This report brings together first-hand testimonies from a range of countries in the region to look at the way European Union states and other actors are affecting systemic violence towards people crossing borders.

BVMN is a network of watchdog organisations active in the Balkans and Greece including No Name Kitchen, Rigardu, Are You Syrious, Mobile Info Team, InfoKolpa, Centre for Peace Studies, Mare Liberum, Collective Aid, Blindspots, Pushback Alarmphone Austria, I Have Rights and PIC. Combining insights from these different members, this month’s report covers, among other things:

– Foreign officers at the Serbian-Hungarian border

– Pushbacks from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Serbia

– Increase in Pushbacks from Croatia to Bosnia-Herzegovina

– Reports of people drowning while crossing rivers in Bosnia-Herzegovina

– Evictions across Greece

– Updates from Patras and Samos CCAC

– People pushed back to prison from Greece to Turkey

– Further securitisation of Turkey’s land borders

– BVMN’s Rule of Law Submission

-EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act