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The police forced the men to stand up towards the back of the van, hands raised behind their neck and sprayed them with pepper spray

Date & Time 2017-11-20
Location Near Horgos, Hungary
Reported by Rigardu
Coordinates 46.174053, 19.931763
Pushback from Hungary
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station unknown
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved no
Men involved no
Age unknown
Group size 6
Countries of origin Afghanistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved unknown
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, pepper spray, dog attacks, destruction of personal belongings, theft of personal belongings, reckless driving
Police involved Hungarian male border police officers with blue uniforms

On November 19th-20th. 2017 at night, 6 men walked from Horgos, Serbia, across the Serbian-Hungarian border. They describe being caught by what they reported as several border police officers with small blue police cars, about 3 km from the border on November 20th. at about at 3 am. The police forced the men to stand up against the back of the van, hands raised behind their neck and sprayed them with pepper spray for about 5 minutes. Afterwards they surrounded the men, so that several police officers were around each of them. The police officers kicked them all over their bodies and hit them for about 10 minutes. The police had 3 police dogs on leashes, which they released, ordering them to attack the men.

The interviewee protected himself with a blanket, but his friend got bitten in his arm. Afterwards the police searched their bodies and belongings, they found small scissors in the pocket of the interviewee and used them to cut his phone charger and shoelaces. They also broke two phones from the other men. The men expressed their intention to seek asylum, so the police asked for their personal details and destination, but didn’t give them any written documents.

Next the police handcuffed the men, in squat position and transported them in a big police van to the Serbian-Hungarian border near their place of apprehension. The police drove really fast (about 200 km/h), so that the men in the back of the car were being thrown around. At the border, on the same night at 4am, the police ordered the men to go back to the Serbian side, so the men ran away to Horgos, Serbia.