Hungary has intensified border security to keep out migrants and the border police are taking extreme measures to stop refugees from entering into their land.
“They treat us like animals, and we are humans,” tells a Pakistani asylum seeker, Shahid Khan. “When they beat us, they were laughing with each other. The policemen, when they beat us, they are taking selfies with us.”
A 34-year-old Iranian, Farhad described the ordeal faced by some 30 refugees, including women and children at the hands of the Hungarian border police. “I haven’t even seen such beating in the movies,” he said. “Five or six soldiers took us one by one to beat us. They tied our hands with plastic handcuffs on our backs.
The officers, according to Farhad, were laughing and filming when the refugees were sprayed with tear gas. “They beat us with everything, with fists, kicks and batons. They deliberately gave us bad injuries. We asked why they are beating us but they just said: ‘Go back to Serbia’,” he added.
Another Iranian, Ehsan said that the asylum-seekers were made to crawl through a hole made in barbed wire fence at the border. “I was the last in line to cross the fence back to Serbia – they let the dogs on me,” he recalls. “I fell to the ground trying to grab his collar and a police officer struck a blow to my face from the side.”
According to Human Rights Watch’s Balkans and Eastern Europe researcher Lydia Gall, the Hungarian border police is required to film operations at the border by a new law, passed in July last year, that allows them to forcefully send any refugee found within 5 miles of Hungarian border back into Serbia. During their trial, the asylum-seekers are detained in camps made of shipping containers.
The watchdog recently found a photograph of a bleeding Ehsan. “They made people stand in front of a camera holding up a piece of paper listing that they had irregularly crossed into Hungary,” Gall explained. “Part of that statement on film would say police officers have behaved nicely and appropriately.”
Gall said that the filming is ‘staged’ so the Hungarian government can avoid proper investigation. “Once they stopped filming, a lot of migrants said the beatings would ensue so there would be no marking on the official video,” she said.
The nightmare for refugees does not just end at beatings. During the harsh winter spell that engulfed Europe at the start of 2017, they were subjected to a new form of torment: they were left to die in the snow. The Hungarian police would often take away their clothes and shoes and pour water over them in temperatures of under -20C.
“They were dumping them at random points at the border in the middle of the night and exposing them to potential death by hypothermia,” Gall claims. “We had people showing up [in Serbia] completely naked.”
Despite of warnings by the United Nations, the Hungarian government refuses to halt its border operations. The UN Refugee Agency’s opposition falls on deaf ears.
In 2015, the European Commission opened infringement proceedings towards the country for its treatment of refugees, however, no progress has been made public since.
Meanwhile the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban has termed migrants as ‘poison’ and a threat to Europe’s security and culture. “If we can’t do it nicely, we have to hold them back by force,” he said. “And we will do it.”
The right-wing government has deployed thousands of guards along its border with Serbia, while the barbed wire has been upgraded to a 13 feet tall barrier armed with heat sensors and cameras.
“Attention, attention. I’m warning you that you are at the Hungarian border,” a loudspeaker blares this message in English, Arabic and Farsi to warn the refugees. “If you damage the fence, cross illegally, or attempt to cross, it’s counted to be a crime in Hungary. I’m warning you to hold back from committing this crime. You can submit your asylum application at the transit zone.”
Courtesy: Independent