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All of this for nothing, nothing

Date & Time 2022-06-12
Location Subotica, Serbia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 46.1693418, 19.5574239
Pushback from Hungary
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age 16 - 25
Group size 4
Countries of origin Syria
Treatment at police station or other place of detention detention, photos taken, denial of food/water
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 6
Violence used insulting, forcing to undress, theft of personal belongings
Police involved 2 Slovakian border police officers with one slovakian border police car, 4 Hungarian border police officers with one hungarian border police car, recognized by the respondent from the plates of the cars and for the patches with flags on the uniforms

On the night of the 6th of  December, a group of 4 Syrian people, among which 2 minors of 16 years old, and other two people respectively of 21 and 25 years old, were pushed back from Hungary to Serbia, at the border after the Hungarian city of Tompa. The following report contains the information collected thanks to the testimony of the 21 years old guy, referred to as the respondent.

The group of 4 started walking the night of the 4 of December around 11 pm, from an abandoned building in which they used to reside near the city of Majdan, close to the Serbian-Romanian border. After having walked for 30 minutes, they could cross the first border and after they crossed the Romanian- Hungarian border. They walked inside Hungary until they reached the town of Szged. Here they hide in the forest and tried to rest and sleep all the day until 7 o’clock, when a taxi came to bring them to Budapest. The respondent refers:

“They made us pay 500 euros each for the taxi ride. If a tourist would have ask for the same ride he would have paid 200 euros. And for what? All of this for nothing, nothing, for being back here in Serbia.”

After the group arrived in Budapest, they took a train to arrive in the city of Szob. They arrived 300 hundred meters close to the Hungarian-Slovakian border, in order to cross it, but some people apprehended them. The respondent refers to these four people as Slovakian and Hungarian border police officers, recognising them from the different patches on their arms, with different flags. They had two cars, one with a Slovakian plate and another one with a Hungarian one. The Hungarian police officers were women, while the Slovakians were men. They handcuffed them tightly, and after one week the respondent has still some signs on his wrist. The police officers were pushing them and screaming at them, they stole everything from them, the backpacks and what was inside, their money and phones.

“They were screaming and insulting us, saying why do you want to come to Europe? Go back to Syria, go back!”

The police officers forced them to go in the car and they took them to a police station where other two Hungarian man police officers took them under custody. Here they put the group in a room, in which only a toilet was there. The respondent refers that they arrived there around 7 pm on the 5th of December and the group stayed in the room until midnight. The room was really cold, there were no blankets inside. They asked for food but the officers denied them to have it. At one point the two police officers came into the room, took picture of the group and then forced them to undress. They didn’t ask the people if they wanted to ask for asylum. Around midnight, the police officers took them in a big white Mercedes car and drove them to Tompa, near the border with Serbia, and they pushed them back.

After this, the group walked in the night until the Subotica camp

“The camp was so full and dirty, we couldn’t stay there”.

In the early morning, three people took a bus to go to the Sombor camp, and the respondent took another bus to arrive at the city of Kanjizaa, and then walk until the abandoned building from which he started walking 2 days before.