Migrants who have attempted to enter Hungary illegally from Serbia are complaining that the Hungarian border guards have roughed them up while deporting them.
According to migrants who have tried unsuccessfully to sneak across the Hungarian border, border guards are roughing them up, reports Der Standard.
Traffic on the Balkan route is once again increasing after a winter and spring that saw a slowdown due in large part to border closures in Macedonia and the European Union (EU) migrant deal with Turkey. Summer weather and a continued flow of migrants seeking alternative routes to Western Europe has led to more and more people ending up on the border of Serbia and Hungary.
Earlier this year the region of Roszke/Horgos, on the Serbian-Hungarian border, there was evidence that the Balkan route was not as sealed as many had been led to believe. As early as February the Hungarian government announced that they had arrested or deported some 1,000 migrants since the closure of the border in September of 2015.
More recently there have been even more migrants showing up in the area which led to the formation of a make-shift migrant camp in May that was at the time populated by around 300 migrants. However, recent reports have revealed that the numbers at the camp have dramatically increased, some estimating that up to 1,200-plus migrants live in the camp with the number expecting to climb to as many as ten thousand over the course of the summer.
Migrants, like Afghan Abdul Razaq, are constantly trying to find a way around the fortified Hungarian border defences. According to Abdul, who was caught by Hungarian police, the authorities have become much less tolerant of illegal migrants and he claims they assaulted him.
Abdul told the press that he had been able to get well into Hungarian territory, only 20 kilometres outside of the capital of Budapest, when police caught him and stepped on his arm. The alleged ordeal hasn’t deterred Abdul who said: “We are again and again trying to cross the border. There is no other choice.”
The story of Abdul and other migrants are heard in the Serbian capital of Belgrade where various pro-migrant non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have claimed that the beating of migrants by Hungarian police is commonplace. In May many of the same organisations and aid groups have been encouraging migrants in Serbia and elsewhere to “test” the closed borders and have given them supplies to aid them in the journey.
Rados Djurovic from the Centre for Asylum Support has been vocal about alleged assaults on migrants, claiming that migrants have been deported with broken legs and arms and that police were responsible. Mr. Djurovic claimed that the closed borders would not stop migrants getting into Western Europe saying: “It’s absolutely impossible to stop migration.”