A leading human rights group says Hungary is using "cruel and violent treatment" to force refugees and migrants back into Serbia, as concern grows for a rising number of people stuck between the two states in squalid conditions and searing heat.
"Hungary is breaking all the rules for asylum seekers transiting through Serbia, summarily dismissing claims and sending them back across the border," said Lydia Gall, Balkans and eastern Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“People who cross into Hungary without permission, including women and children, have been viciously beaten and forced back across the border.”
Hungary built fences on its frontiers with Serbia and Croatia last autumn to divert migrants and refugees travelling north through the Balkans, but several thousand each month have continued to breach the fence and enter legally via “transit zones”; most quickly travel on through the country to Austria, Germany and beyond.
As of July 5th, however, any illegal migrant detained by Hungary’s police within 8km of the border can be returned to Serbia without any legal process.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and Hungarian Helsinki Committee condemned the new law as a breach of Budapest's international obligations to people fleeing war and persecution.
Hungary contends it is trying to restore European security and border rules that were thrown into chaos last year, when more than one million asylum seekers reached EU via Turkey and the Balkans.
Human Rights Watch cited interviews with people who had crossed illegally into Hungary, who “said they were brutally beaten and abused by officials and then pushed back to Serbia.”
“They said that officials often used spray that caused burning sensations to their eyes, set dogs on them, kicked and beat them with batons and fists, put plastic handcuffs on them and forced them through small openings in the razor wire fence, causing further injuries,” the organisation said.
One man said he and his group were beaten for two hours: “Five or six soldiers took us one by one to beat us . . . They beat us with everything, with fists, kicks and batons. They deliberately gave us bad injuries.”
Serbian officials say they may soon struggle to cope if the number of people stuck at the Hungarian border fence continues to rise. There are few toilets, no washing facilities and only one water tap at the main camp, where the temperature was expected to reach 35 degrees today.
