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We were treated in a brutal manner that had nothing to do with humanity

Date & Time 2023-01-20
Location Ruzsa
Reported by Collective Aid
Coordinates 46.2890678, 19.7481121
Pushback from Hungary
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved yes
Men involved yes
Age unknown
Group size 20
Countries of origin Syria, Morocco, Gambia
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), insulting, dog attacks, forcing to undress, theft of personal belongings
Police involved Unknown number of Hungarian, Slovakian and Czech officers. One Hungarian police car and two cars with Slovakian and Czech license plates

The respondent was a Moroccan man in his twenties. He tried to cross the  border between Serbia and Hungary with 20 other people from Morocco, Syria and Gambia during the night of the 19th to 20th January. The group were aged between 20 and 30 years old.

The respondent described that, after crossing the Serbian-Hungarian border, they walked for around six hours until they reached Ruzsa, Hungary, in the morning. Here, they were reportedly intercepted and chased by uniformed people driving three cars with license plates from Hungary, Slovakia and Czechia.

According to the respondent, five people from their group were aprehended, the respondent being one of them, while the rest managed to run away. The men in uniforms, identified by the respondent as “police officers” were reportedly physically violent to the transit group and let the dogs they had loose on them. One of the respondent’s friends had a visible dog bite on his hand at the time of the interview. The respondent described that the officers stole phones and money -715 euros in total- from 3 different people. They were also reportedly asked to take off their clothes, and pictures were taken of them.

” We were treated in a brutal manner that had nothing to do with humanity.”

The respondent states that, after some time, the officers put them in buses to drive them back to Serbia. According to him, there were already a lot of people in the bus, including families with children. The bus dropped them at the border with Serbia, where they were made to cross back, but they had to walk “really long” to go back to where they used to stay.