Refugees and migrants using the Balkan route often experience violent, brutal and unlawful treatment by authorities, according to a report published Thursday.
People fleeing Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Syria told researchers for NGO Oxfam, which compiled the “A dangerous game” report, that they had been beaten, robbed and illegally deported by police, border guards and other officials.
The research, conducted for Oxfam by the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association (MYLA), is based on 140 peoples’ testimonies of incidents that occurred in Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and Macedonia.
Some of the incidents reported included police in Hungary forcing migrants to undress and sit naked in snow as they poured cold water over them and authorities in Croatia forcing migrants to strip and walk back over the border with Serbia, while officials beat them with batons. In Bulgaria, officials searched a group of migrants and took their belongings, including their shoes, before turning them back.
Authorities are allegedly routinely forcing migrants to return across borders without listening to their individual cases, providing legal assistance or interpreters, and without any possibility of appeal.
Source: http://www.politico.eu/article/oxfam-refugees-treated-brutally-on-balkan…
