In December 2017, 18 men from Pakistan, including some minors and 4-5 people with serious illnesses, moved from Serbia across the Hungarian border and walked through Hungarian territory. On December 30th. late in the evening they were stopped by 3 Hungarian police officers in a forrest, near the road 80. The police called for several more Hungarian police officers to join them.
Some of the officers violently attacked all of the men, the officers beat them with hands and sticks, and kicked them on all parts of their bodies. The men didn’t express their wish to seek for asylum. The police transported the men back to the Serbian-Hungarian border near Horgoš, Serbia. There were several police officers described as Hungarian, who continued the beating and kicking, using harder violence than at the catchment place, resulting in severe pain for some of them. The police also ordered their dogs to attack the group.
The men with illnesses showed their medical documents, the interviewee proved his hepatitis B status and asked the police to stop this violent treatment, referring to their poor health conditions and need for special care. However, the police officers did not respond to their pledges and continued. The officers also asked if the men spoke English, and beat the ones who did not speak English even more. After the use of violence the officers searched their bodies and belongings. They searched for money and mobile phones and wrote down the numbers of the sim cards from their phones.
The police told the men to take their clothes off and sit on the ground in the rain. While being watched the police officers for the rest of the night, the men had to wait in the cold without clothes. They were further attacked by the dogs again. Once in a while some officers described as wearing army-style clothing passed the place. During their visits the police officers behaved properly but after they left the officers continued the mistreatment. The men asked for water and food but the officers denied this. The people suffering from illnesses asked again for a different treatment, but no answer was given to them. Nobody expressed their intention to seek for asylum. The police kept them outside in the cold and rain for the rest of the night. On the next morning, the 31th. the police ordered the men to go back to Serbia.