Skip to content
Support our work

You are Muslim, we are Christian. We don't like you

Date & Time 2020-11-16
Location Röszke border crossing
Reported by Collective Aid
Coordinates 46.1758362, 19.97689232
Pushback from Hungary
Pushback to Serbia
Taken to a police station yes
Minors involved no
WLTI* involved no
Men involved yes
Age unknown
Group size 3
Countries of origin Afghanistan
Treatment at police station or other place of detention detention
Overall number of policemen and policewomen involved 12
Violence used beating (with batons/hands/other), kicking, pushing people to the ground
Police involved 7-8 officials in green uniforms (referred to as military officers by the respondent), 4 Hungarian policemen

Two Afghani men left Subotica (Serbia) by train on 16th November 2020. After crossing the border with Hungary, they reached a train station at 18:00. At the station they were detected by seven Hunagarian officers – the respondent referred to them as “army personnel” due to their green uniforms. One of the officers reportedly fired a gun into the air and ordered the two men to lay down on the ground. 

The respondent reported that three Hungarian policemen and one policewoman then arrived on the scene and one of them started kicking and beating him with a stick while shouting:

“You are Muslim, we are Christian. We don’t like you … If you come back, I will beat you”

This attack occured as he was lying on the ground next to his companion. In an attempt to protect his head from the beating, he covered it with his right hand, which was also hit by the stick. At the time of interview he reported how he had diffiulties in moving the hand still due to the injury incurred.

After 30 minutes laid out on the ground, the two men were taken to the police station in the town, where they spent an hour sitting on the floor. After that, they were taken to the border crossing at Röszke in a police car, together with another man who was also pushed back to Serbia together with them. This man had difficulties to walk and told the interviewee that he had been repeatedly beaten with the butt of a rifle, causing the limping. Upon reaching the border with Serba in the evening (between 20:00 and 22:00), the policemen made them walk back to Serbia, while filming them. No Serbian police were observed on the other side of the border.