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They were shouting at us all the time and we were beaten with the sticks and were scared by their dogs

Date & Time 2022-10-28
Location Border gate between Röszke and Horgos
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 46.17676343, 19.98959365
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 36
Countries of origin Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey
Treatment at police station or other place of detention denial of food/water
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 11+
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), insulting, dog attacks, theft of personal belongings
Police involved 11-12 hungarian border police officers; 1 police black car

The respondent is an 18-year-old Afghan man and was pushed back with a transit group of 35 people, from Hungary to Serbia between Röszke and Horgos, around 7 pm of the 28th October.

On the 27th of October the respondent, who was living in the Subotica Reception Centre, started to walk at 6 pm. After 4-5 hours he reached the Hungarian border fences, near Horgoš. He crossed the border with a group of 35 people and then he kept walking alone for one day through Hungary. At some point (he cannot recall how much he walked or where he was spotted), he was stopped by 4 or 5 people who he referred to as ‘Hungarian officers’ wearing dark blue uniforms. They had dogs and batons. He was reportedly told that he should raise his arms and give them his backpack and he was asked: “What do you have? Do you have money? You will give everything [to us]”.  He said that he couldn’t manage to hide his money, but he could hide his mobile phone.

Afterwards, the men loaded the respondent into a black car with windows so darkened that he couldn’t see anything outside He was detained in this car for 3-4 hours, alone, and he states that when he asked for water, nobody cared.

Reportedly, after a while, 30-35 Syrian and Kurdish people were also brought into the vehicle, including one woman and two children, as far as the respondent recalls. They waited inside the vehicle all together for more than one hour without food or water.

In the meantime, the people referred to as ‘officers’ took a picture of everyone. The respondent reports that there was a Kurdish man with a broken leg; he was in a lot of pain and was asking for help to move. Yet the officers didn’t help him, so other people in the group had to support him while walking.

The officers in question then handed the transit group over to other authorities who, according to the respondent’s description, had the German flag on their uniforms. They also reportedly had batons, guns, and dogs. The respondent then describes the violence that they used against them:

“They were shouting at us all the time and we were beaten with the sticks and were scared by their dogs. They beat us a lot, but they have only one limit, which is to stop at the point where they have to take us to the hospital so that we don’t become a nuisance.”  

After the long waiting in the vehicle, the group was taken to the Hungarian-Serbian official border crossing point,  a one hour drive. At the border point, the transit group were handed over again to who the respondent refers to as ‘6-7 Hungarian border officers wearing dark blue uniforms.’ The respondent recalled:

“They were constantly talking among themselves and shouting at us. I didn’t understand what they were saying because they were speaking in a language I didn’t understand, but I could understand that one of them, who was obviously a higher-ranking person, was swearing while shouting at us.”

According to the respondent, on the 28th of October, at the official gate between the Hungarian town Röszke and Serbian town Horgos, the group was pushed back at around 7 pm.

The respondent, whom we had a chance to talk to immediately after the pushback, was having difficulty walking and said he needed food and water. He then returned to the Subotica Reception Centre.