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Border police detain migrants in secret prisons along the EU border

EPA

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Border police secretly detain migrants in detention centers along the external borders of the European Union. This has emerged from a research by a research collective Lighthouse Reports in collaboration with various European newspapers, including Trouw. This makes border guards guilty of human rights violations.

Migrants are locked up in cages, closed vans or containers in Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia. Before being expelled from the EU, they are physically abused. People also do not have access to toilets or running water and are not provided with food and drink.

Detained migrants are not registered anywhere. They also do not have the possibility to apply for asylum. The conduct of the border police violates human rights and points to torture, experts say.

Financed with EU funds

The research collective spoke to dozens of victims and witnesses, including refugees from Afghanistan and Syria. Journalists also collected video material and viewed documents from Frontex, the EU organization that controls Europe’s external borders.

Among other things, they discovered the location of a cage in Bulgaria and saw how migrants are monitored there by Frontex border guards. They also filmed containers and a gas station in Hungary where refugees were locked up.

The detention of migrants is funded by the European Union. Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary jointly received €627 million from the European Internal Security Fund and the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund. Hungary paid three prison trucks from the fund to deport illegal refugees. The Bulgarian police station with the cage was also renovated with EU money.

Pushbacks on the sea

Croatia and Hungary deny detention of refugees and say they are acting in line with international human rights. Following the investigation, the European Commission invites the responsible countries to conduct an investigation.

Frontex has already been discredited from research it turned out that the organization pushes migrants back to the Mediterranean. This makes the border guard guilty of illegal practices. Frontex itself claims that there are no fundamental rights of migrants be violated.

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