One aspect of the work of No Name Kitchen is to report border violence via Border Violence Monitoring Network, but we are hearing increasing reports of internal violence from authorities. Border violence includes the illegal act of pushing people back without offering the chance to claim asylum, internal violence doesn't include this. At the moment we collect the internal violence reports but they don't get published with the rest - instead they will be used to make a report all together. Everyone I speak to hear in Bosnia wants us to tell their stories and make sure that the European Union is aware of what is happening here. So I'm publishing this report here.
I met this guy in Serbia. He was hanging out with some guys from Afghanistan who he'd just met and was quite shy and unsure of the situation. He spoke some English but we mostly had a conversation using Google translate. After we finished the interview he told me that he can't video call his Mum at the moment because of the injury to his face. And he showed me amazing pictures of his home town and the beautiful scenery. As with many people I meet, he didn't leave because he wanted to, he had no choice.
I met this guy in Serbia. He was hanging out with some guys from Afghanistan who he'd just met and was quite shy and unsure of the situation. He spoke some English but we mostly had a conversation using Google translate. After we finished the interview he told me that he can't video call his Mum at the moment because of the injury to his face. And he showed me amazing pictures of his home town and the beautiful scenery. As with many people I meet, he didn't leave because he wanted to, he had no choice.
On 20th July 2020 a group of 15 men were sleeping in the jungle in Greece near the border with North Macedonia. The people in the group were aged between 16 and 40 and from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey plus the respondent who is from Iran. They had been staying in the forest area between Polykastro and the border with North Macedonia, west of Idomeni and had been there for 7 days. They were woken in the night, at approximately 11pm, by the barking of a police dog. 5 police vehicles and 10 to 15 officers were present. Some of the officers were wearing the blue and navy blue uniform of the Greek police and others were not in uniform. There was one police dog. Everyone ran away but the respondent reports having a “problem with my heart”, so couldn’t run far. “I was one metre away from the police and I approached them to surrender. One metre away they released the dog to attack me.”
The police dog was wearing a metal muzzle and was released twice, the first time the muzzle injured the respondent on his eyebrow, cutting it, and the second time it hit him on the lip. “My face was bloody.” The officers then handcuffed him and put him and some others from the group in the back of a van. The respondent describes the van as being like those used in Iran for transporting dangerous criminals. “Before I came to Europe I thought only the agents in my country were bad, but now I see that the agents in Europe are bad also.” The group members who had been caught were held in the van for an hour in the location where they had been sleeping.
They were then taken to the police station, around 30 or 40 minutes drive away. The respondent was held in the police station for around 4 hours. The officers gave him something to clean the blood from his face but no other medical assistance. At 5am they released him and told him to go to the hospital. “When they saw my condition they were scared… I was afraid to go to the city, they deport to Turkey and then Turkey to Iran.” He then walked from the police station for 3 hours along the train tracks to reach his friends while he was still covered in blood.
The police dog was wearing a metal muzzle and was released twice, the first time the muzzle injured the respondent on his eyebrow, cutting it, and the second time it hit him on the lip. “My face was bloody.” The officers then handcuffed him and put him and some others from the group in the back of a van. The respondent describes the van as being like those used in Iran for transporting dangerous criminals. “Before I came to Europe I thought only the agents in my country were bad, but now I see that the agents in Europe are bad also.” The group members who had been caught were held in the van for an hour in the location where they had been sleeping.
They were then taken to the police station, around 30 or 40 minutes drive away. The respondent was held in the police station for around 4 hours. The officers gave him something to clean the blood from his face but no other medical assistance. At 5am they released him and told him to go to the hospital. “When they saw my condition they were scared… I was afraid to go to the city, they deport to Turkey and then Turkey to Iran.” He then walked from the police station for 3 hours along the train tracks to reach his friends while he was still covered in blood.
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