On November 26th-28th 2017, 20 men walked from Horgos Serbia across the Serbian-Hungarian border and continued inside Hungarian territory, before they were caught by several (about 15) what were described as Hungarian border police officers. The officers were in blue uniforms which the respondent suggests had ‘Border Security’ written on the back, with 3 police dogs and several police cars. The apprehension took place near Morahalom, Hungary at about 12pm. The police asked for their nationalities and searched their bodies and belongings, the men expressed their intention to seek asylum.
Afterwards the police violently assaulted them. All of the police officers surrounded the men and let their 3 police dogs attack the men and scratch them all over their bodies. Then 2-3 officers violently attacked the men one by one. The police beat them with stick (long thin black with armrest) and kicked them all over their bodies, and also reportedly used teargas to spray them in their eyes and mouth. They beat each person for what was estimated as about 15 minutes. Then the men were transported in a big police van to a police station nearby, estimated as a 20 minute drive away. There the men were interrogated, one by one, while the others stayed in what was described as a big cold hall.
The men once again expressed their intention to seek asylum. The police asked the men to fill in a form with their identity details and information about their route and destination, but no fingerprints or pictures were taken. The men asked for water and food, but the police did not give them any. After about 5 hours at the police station, the men were transported in a big police van for about 2 hours, to the Serbian-Hungarian border near Subotica Serbia. The Hungarian border police took pictures of the men and then pushed them back to the Serbian side.