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What are you doing here?

Date & Time 2022-11-13
Location Serbia
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 46.1756319, 19.9843403
Pushback from Hungary
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age unknown
Group size 22
Countries of origin Afghanistan, Syria
Treatment at police station or other place of detention detention, photos taken, no translator present, denial of food/water
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 4
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), insulting, theft of personal belongings
Police involved 4 Hungarian police officers in navy blue uniforms; 2 police cars

On the morning of the 13th of November, a group of 22 Syrian and Afghan people has been pushed back from Hungary to Serbia, specifically at the Horgos 2 official border crossing point. Among them there was a 28 years old man from Syria, who will be called “the respondent”.

The respondent refers to have slept in the forest near the border for 7 days with other 4 people, having little food, because there were too many people monitoring the border, which the respondent refers to as “Hungarian police officers”, that made it impossible to cross. Eventually, in the afternoon of the 12th of November, the group managed to cross. After having climbed the fence that separates Hungary and Serbia, they walked for around 15 kilometres into the Hungarian territory, and they arrived near a village called Röszke, where they bought some food.

Here, they saw 4 people the respondent identifies as “Hungarian police officers”. .They had two cars and they were wearing navy blue uniforms. They started to chase them; it was already dark, so they were using strong flashlights. The respondent refers to have lost the other 4 people in the confusion of the running, and the officers apprehended him. The officers started beating him with a baton causing him visible injuries on his legs and arms. After a while, the respondent recalls that a white van arrived, reportedly full of Afghan people, and the police officers loaded the respondent inside the van. The people were kept in the van until the early morning. Then, they were let out one by one. When the turn of the respondent arrived, he refers:

“The police officer started doing questions to me, like “What are you doing here?” I told him I was there because the police caught me and he started beating and insulting me. Then he started searching in my backpack and he stole 100 euros and after he took a picture of me.”

After questioning all the people in the van, the police officers pushed the group back at the official Horgoš, 2 border crossing. The respondent refers that, after that, he walked some kilometres to some abandoned buildings near Horgoš,where people on the move used to stay, so he could take some rest and eat.