Below, Freedom re-publishes Are You Syrious?‘ report from Hungary:

“They turned on the razor, grabbed me so I wouldn’t move and made a cross on my head. Then they started laughing at me as they hit my head. When they finally released me, I just wanted to take all the hair off my head“

This is the testimony reported by Klikaktiv, a Serbian NGO, after talking with a man from Morocco illegally pushed back from Hungary to Serbia. His story reminds many other testimonies collected by KliKactiv and other organizations and activists along the Balkan route borders. Extreme physical and psychological violence, humiliating acts and then illegal pushback. This is a systematic daily practice carried out by European countries. According to the respondent, Hungarian authorities would have beat him and his group and after that they would have taken their belongings. After which the border guards would amuse themselves by drawing the cross on his head, humiliating him and emphasizing the racist structures inherent in borders.

Illegal rejections take place every day at European borders: the right to asylum is not respected by European countries that collectively reject without a proper application analysis process.

This in itself has a devastating effect on people on the move, but is amplified by systematic violence that adds to the trauma on the covers of those who have no other way but to risk their lives by crossing borders

Are You Syrious?

Image: Klikaktiv