In the past, refugees were not often beaten on the borders, but now patrols beat them, treat them very badly, and return them to Serbia

10.03.2017

The respondent is young a man from Syria, he is 26 years old. On the 19th March he was pushed back from Hungary to Serbia in a group with fourteen people including 2 women and 3 minors from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.The group left Serbia near by the Kelebija. The respondent reported that they spent 2 days hidden in the forest near by Kissazallas city at 14 km away from the border and early in the morning around 5 a.m they saw and heard a drone flying above them. After that, according to the respondent, four or five vehicles, that he described as white and blue and identified as a Hungarian police car appeared. Reportedly, inside the vehicles there were 12 to 14 people, including one woman, wearing blue uniforms with a red patch on their arms, that the respondent identified as Hungarian police officers. When they arrived on the spot, the people described above apprehended the transit group. According to the respondent, the woman in blue uniform was the one who started to beat them using batons, and she also kicked them several times. The respondent stated that the people in uniforms beat the woman member of the transit group, but not the minors. He also further affirm that the people in uniforms took their money and power banks. Moreover, the officers forced them to sit on the ground one at a time and they took pictures of all of them.At some point, the respondent was forced to enter a big vehicle with all the group that was apprehended with him. According to the respondent, there forced to enter in one of the two big vehicles that he described as white vans with the Hungarian flag on the front. Inside, there were already around 30 / 40 people, including minors aged 16 and 17 years old and old people; they were all brought back to Serbia. .At the end of the interview, the respondent wanted to underlie that he thinks that the violence at the Serbian-Hungarian border has increased in this years : “ in the past, refugees were not often beaten on the borders, but now patrols beat them, treat them very badly, and return them to Serbia”