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"If you try to talk or move, we will feed you to the dogs"

Date & Time 2022-03-09
Location Röszke, Hungary
Reported by No Name Kitchen
Coordinates 46.17598729, 19.97590514
Pushback from Hungary
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station no
Minors involved yes
WLTI* involved yes
Men involved yes
Age 19 - 59
Group size 29
Countries of origin Syria, Iraq, Libya, Kurdistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention detention, photos taken, no translator present, denial of access to toilets, denial of food/water
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 5
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, pushing people to the ground, insulting, destruction of personal belongings, reckless driving, Threatening with dogs
Police involved 5 Hungarian police officers in dark blue uniforms, 2 regular police cars, 1 white police van

On the afternoon of 2nd September, the respondent, a 59-years-old syrian man and his 19-years-old son crossed the border between Subotica (Serbia) and Hungary, together with 25 other Syrian people.

After 3 hours of pouring rain and wearing wet clothes, he and his son, together with 2 other group members, lost their group in the forest. They hid until 8 AM the next morning in their wet clothes before losing all hope to move on. Out of desperation, cold and foot problems, they walked to highway 55 to seek help.

The respondent found 4 men dressed in dark blue uniforms he identified as police officer and asked them for help because of the storm and his foot problems. Without a word, one of the police officers started beating him on his knees and legs with a baton. Another one started hitting the other group members with his fists on their heads and necks.

The respondent asked the policemen to stop beating them, on what the policemen replied: “Why are you coming in our country?“.

After that, the officers forced them to take out their phones and powerbanks and made the group throw their own devices on the ground in front of themselves.

The respondent reports that they were also threatened with dogs. Shortly after, the police forced them to enter the van which was already filled with 25 people, including 5 minors and 4 women. Because of his age and some foot problems, the respondent wasn`t able to enter the van by himself, so one of the officers hit him again, as the respondent recalls: “brutally on my back“.

After everybody entered the van, one policeman pointed at the dogs in the back and shouted: “If you try to talk or move, I will feed you to the dogs“.

The respondent recalls one hour and a half of fast, reckless driving, abrupt braking, and sharp turns from the driver, before arriving next to the border crossing point Horgos II, along the fence that divides Hungary from Serbia.

At the border, the new group was dragged out of the van by the same policemen and body-searched on the ground. They were de facto detained there for 2 hours. The police took photos of every single one of them. “For 2 hours nobody was allowed to talk or move” the respondent said. We asked for water, didn`t receive any and instead I got shouted at as a reaction.

Between 3 and 4 PM the whole group was pushed through a blue gate, 500 meters close to the Horgos border crossing point, with the words: “Just go“.