HRW accuses Serbian police of mistreating migrants

HRW accuses Serbian police of mistreating migrants

HRW activist interviewed migrants and asylum seekers who described "attacks, threats, insults and extortion" they were subjected to, as well as "denial of obligatory special measures of protection of unattended children," and the practice of sending them "back to Macedonia" under urgent procedure.

Some families and unattended children said their attempts to register as asylum seekers were refused and they slept outdoors in the cold, HRW said in a statement.

"The Serbian authorities should provide protection to asylum seekers and migrants, including children who are escaping war and persecution, instead of allowing the police to perpetrate violence against them," said Emina Cerimovic, an investigator with the NGO.

The organization said it spoke with 81 asylum seekers and migrants, including 18 children, 17 of whom unattended, in Macedonia and Serbia from November 2014 until January 2015. This

According to the report, most cases of abuse happened in Subotica in northern Serbia, but also in Belgrade and in southern and eastern parts of the country.

26 migrants and asylum seekers claimed that the police "forced them to hand over money and cell phones, with the use of threats and violence."

"In November and December, Human Rights Watch made three visits to the informal camps in and around the Ciglana brick factory in Subotica, a border town close to Serbia’s frontier with Hungary," the report said, and added:

"More than 50 people, including women and very young children, were sleeping in improvised tents, on bricks and piles of paper with little or no shelter from the freezing cold with temperatures as low as minus five degrees Celsius during the night."

"Tibor Varga, a local pastor who provides migrants with blankets and food, said that at times, more than 100 people are at the brick factory and that it is especially worrisome that so many families with small children and unaccompanied children as young as 12 live there," the HRW report said.

"Fourteen people there said police had threatened them with detention and deportation if they would not hand over their money and mobile phones. Seven said the police hit or slapped them or sprayed them with pepper spray, then took their money," the document also claimed, and quoted “Younes, a young man from Afghanistan" who said the police "extorted money twice from him and three other men he was traveling with - the first time, near Subotica, two police officers stopped the men’s car and told them they would have to give the police money or spend three months in prison."

"We were scared, so we paid EUR 80 for them to let us go,” Younes said.

"When they reached downtown Subotica, Younes and his three friends were awakened by two police officers at about 5 a.m. as they slept in the town’s public park,“ the report said.

"They asked us what we were doing. We said we wanted to go to Hungary. Then they took us to a side street, behind a hotel and told us ‘Take out everything from your pockets. Don’t hide anything.’ We said we didn’t have money. Then one of them searched all our pockets and said, ‘We will deport you back to Afghanistan. You have to pay. It is the policy in our country," Younes was quoted as saying.

Asked by HWR activists if he had reported the abuse, Younes said, “No. We are illegal and they can do what they want.”

The document also quotes a statement made by "Nahla, a 38-year-old mother from Afghanistan," who was "traveling with her four children ages 6, 9, 11, and 13."

"Nahla and her 13-year-old son said police had come to the factory two or three nights earlier as they slept, awakened them and sprayed them in the eyes with pepper spray, then took money from them," the report said, and added that “Nevres, a 15-year-old boy from Afghanistan, said police sprayed him in the eyes with pepper spray during the same incident," adding that "all three described intense pain from the attack."