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“It was as if we were criminal people”
The main respondent is a 25 years old man from Afghanistan. They were trying to cross the border from Bulgaria to Serbia with a group of 38 people between 8 and around 55 years old. 4 or 5 group members were minors. Most of them were Afghans but he also mentioned one Iranian guy and two people from Pakistan. One of the minors with the age of 8 years old was travelling with his dad or uncle. At least one of the other minors was travelling without family. He was around 13 years old.
The group tried to cross from Bulgaria to Serbia through the mountains near Dimitrovgrad in Serbia. It was around the 6th of October 2024. Before the crossing they walked through the mountains from village to village to reach the border. Sometimes they slept in the jungle along the road because at the jungle in the mountains there is no police. They slept at one kilometer before the border. They continued the walking over the border during the night to avoid the police. From around 10 pm until 5 or 6 am they continued the walking to cross the border. There is just one small street and some lamps on this border according to the respondent.The crossing during the night makes it more difficult for the respondent to recall where exactly they crossed the mountains. The respondent had a telephone but they didn’t have internet connection at some point. They used the map that he had download to continue the travel to Dimitrovgrad. The feet of the respondent was badly injured because of all the walking.
The respondent said that the Serbian police apprehended them in between the city of Dimitrovgrad and Pirot around 8 pm the same day. Two police cars came from one side in the street and another police car from the other side. He said that the cars looked like the ‘skoda’ rapid cars of gendarmerie but border police was written on the side of the car. All of the police men had the dark blue uniforms of the border police according to the respondent. Sometimes they were wearing a cap or some kind of black mask over the head that only shows the eyes. They didn’t wear helmets but all of them had what the respondent describes as ‘masks’. They couldn’t see who he police men were. All of them were wearing batons on theirs belts to hit. The respondent described that in the city the police had a cap but at the border the police only had this black masks that cover everything unless the eyes. He doesn’t remember how the emblem on the arm of the uniform looked like, because the police sometimes ordered them to only look down.
When the police arrived they only had this type of skoda rapid cars, but later on they were brought to the police station with what the respondent describes as a light blue van. According to him the police put down the seats so that they could fit in the van with a lot of people. The car didn’t have any marks, sign or written text on it according to the respondent. The police in the police station had the same dark blue uniforms as the ones that first surrounded them in between Dimitrovgrad and Pirot.
In the police station some people who spoke Persian and Pashto came to talk with them. They said that they were not police but translators. One of them was from Afghanistan and the other one was not very clear. The people on the move asked the translators if they could help but they told them that they couldn’t. After this request for help, the translators took an interview from the people on the move in the police station. They asked some questions that were written down on a paper. They asked questions like: “where do you want to go? How did you come here? Where are the other people? How much money did you have to pay to come here?”. The respondent describes that it was a lot of questions. 10 Persians were sitting on one side and the Pashtuns on the other side.
After these actions and the interview the respondent describes that the group was hungry and asked for food. The police answered: “no, no problem because after one hour you should go to the border” In the end they had to stay one night at the police station, from 8 pm until the next evening. The didn’t have any water, food or access to the toilet during the stay. At the end of there detention, the police hit the people with the batons that were attached to the belt. The officers said: “move to the car, move to the car” to make them go into the car in order to deport them to the Bulgarian border. The leg of the respondent was injured and the police said “go go go” even when the respondent said that he couldn’t go because of his injured leg. The police answered with: “no problem, no problem.” They hit him on his neck and the lower part of his back.
The police escorted 68 people to the cars and divided them in 3 groups. The respondent describes that they were brought to the border together with other people who were apprehended by the police before. The police drove the group back to the border but to three different places, so the respondent could not join the group of his friends. The respondent describes that the police then hit him two times, one time at the police station and one time at the border. They had a gun and a baton. He states that this hurt a lot, and that all his friends say that he got beaten every time because he is bigger than the others.
At the border the police made them stand in a line. The first police man made them sit down on the street, on the knees with their hands on the back. The respondent said: “it was as if we were criminal people.” They were forced to look down. After that they were forced to go back to Bulgaria while the police shouted at them: “go go go don’t look back, don’t look back.” The respondent said that the people lost everything: their bags, everything. The Serbian border police took the money, powerbanks and cell phones from almost everyone. Some people could hide it in their shoes. He still has his phone but it is the only phone for the group of 40 people.
The police were watching the people on the move walking back to the border and left after 25 minutes. When the police lights disappeared they crossed again to Serbia. They slept close to the crossing point and continued their travel to Dimitrovgrad the next day. The respondent said that they didn’t have any another chose then going back to Serbia. In 24h they had only been eating one meal.
legal analysis
"Collective expulsions of aliens is prohibited" according to article 4, protocol 4. of the European Convention on Human Rights. This means that people from a different nationality can not be pushed back as a group to a neighbouring country or to their country of origin solely based on that nationality. An assessment of the individual situation of every group member is necessary. The individual assessment is necessary in order to avoid a breach of article 33 of the 1951 Refugee Convention. This article contains the principle of non-refoulement: “No Contracting State shall expel or return (" refouler ") a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” This means that authorities can’t expulse potential refugees to other countries without examining their individual situations. Authorities have to examine whether this person’s risk an inhuman treatment upon return to that country. Besides that the pushback of children can potentially breach the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In this convention the best interest of the child should be taken into consideration under all circumstances.
overview
38 people ,
from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran,
aged 8-55.