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Severely injured, a man is removed from a Hungarian hospital and pushed back to Serbia

Date & Time 2023-01-05
Location Kelebija, Serbia
Reported by Collective Aid
Coordinates 46.1571875, 19.5440625
Pushback from Hungary
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved no
Age 20
Group size 20
Countries of origin Morocco, Unknown
Treatment at police station or other place of detention photos taken, papers signed, no translator present
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved
Violence used no violence used
Police involved The day of the pushback: 2 officers and one police car at the hospital, one police bus.

The respondent, a 20 years old Moroccan man, was in a car crash in Hungary on the 21st of December, 2022, a few kilometers away from the Austrian border. The green van with about 20 people inside (from Morocco and Syria) was chased by the police. According to the respondent, the authorities attempted to stop the van by overtaking it which led to it getting off the road and hitting a tree.

According to press articles about this event, 20 emergency units were called to the site of the crash, and Hungarian authorities were supported by Austrian officers.

Car crash where the respondent was injured. Source: Facebook post about the events

The respondent was severely injured and taken by ambulance to the hospital in the city of Gyor. 

His medical report states that he was diagnosed with fracture of right femur diaphysis (with fragmentary gap and small deviation), fracture of right tibia and head contusion. He had several examinations (CT, X-rays, blood tests) and underwent a surgery the same day. He explained he does not remember much because of the sock state in which he was and the absence of explanations at the hospital. 

The respondent reported he was contacted on the phone by a translator asking to get his consent for the surgery. However, he was not clearly explained what the surgery would be as he did not know what had happened to him when we met him two weeks later in Serbia. He was then still not aware that they had put metal plates in his upper and lower leg to stabilize it. 

He described that nothing else during those 15 days had been explained or translated to him.

According to his medical report, he received diverse medication while he was kept in the sub intensive care ward. He was given crutches and his medical report.

His medical report, written in Hungarian, states: “As the name and exact address of the patient is unknown, the patient will be transferred from our ward by the Border Police.”  

Another mention was added by hand at the end of the report, under the signatures : “05.01 – The patient is in a transportable condition”

On the 5th of January, 2 officers reportedly came to the hospital and took him away without explaining the situation. He described that he was then driven by these 2 officers in a police car to a police station in an unknown location. There, he waited for an hour on the ground, and had to sign a paper he could not understand. 

According to the respondent, in the evening, he was put into a bus with about 20 other people and driven to the Serbian border close to Kelebija.

There, he was reportedly photographed and sent through a gate in the fence approximately 1 km west of Kelebija village. He described that he had to walk for more than 30 minutes with his crutches, still in a lot of pain and unable to use his right leg, until he reached a roundabout in the village of Kelebija and could finally get a taxi. Not knowing where to go, he decided to take the direction of Belgrade and reportedly stayed in the “forest” outside the city on his own for multiple days days sleeping outside.