Governments torturing refugees, new report

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18 July 2016

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Translated from Dutch NOS TV:

Oxfam: refugees mistreated at European Union borders

Today, 06:25

Refugees attempting to travel to northern Europe via the Balkans are often faced with violence and intimidation by authorities. Oxfam charity organisation says in a report (.pdf) that policemen, border guards and other officials in the Balkans regularly cross red lines and wrongly send migrants back or treat them unlawfully.

Oxfam bases itself on interviews with 140 refugees who came to Europe in 2015 and 2016. They expose, according to the aid organization “a disturbing pattern” of abuse of power and violence. According to aid agencies border guards do everything to get people back across the borders.

In the report a man from Afghanistan says that he was put into a cage in Bulgaria and did not get any food for three days. “And I was not the only one treated cruelly. They beat us and even did electric shocks,” said Issaq.

Hungarian border guards are said to have snatched valuables from migrants. They were then deported. “Our cell phones were destroyed, they took our money away“, said Afghan Malik. “We were beaten and then driven back to the border.”

Hypothermia

Other examples mentioned in the report were in Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia. Eg, a group of migrants in Serbia was told that they would be taken to a refugee center. Instead, the group was dumped along the border with Bulgaria in the freezing cold. By the time they were found, two of them had become hypothermic and unconscious.

Also, several migrants tell that policemen used air conditioning of cars to scare them off. Nabil from Afghanistan says he deliberately had to sit in the cold, though he had ended up in the water in an attempt to reach Croatia. “After the police had caught us, we were locked into a car with air conditioning. It was really cold.”

Oxfam says that some things are extra bad as Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia are European Union countries. “The EU should be a bastion for human rights, but by accepting such conditions, they really support violent behaviour“, says Oxfam.