Source: APC

Photo: APC

Date: October 28, 2023

Hungary pushed back a family of six from Syria four times in the last 7 days. The father was beaten every time by the Hungarian border police in front of his wife and children, aged two to seven. This family from Aleppo lives in the open, scared, exposed and at risk of violence from smugglers and criminals and they desperately need help.

They are suffering, but they are left with no other solution, because they have nowhere to return. We informed them about the way to access the existing family camp, about the available health care, and provided the children with the necessary humanitarian aid during this field visit.

The next steps involve informing the local center for social work and the local management of the camp, in order to provide them with access to accommodation.

Unfortunately, the APC teams have recently encountered an increasing number of similar cases along Serbian border with the EU member states – Hungary, Croatia and Romania. In this situation, we try to inform families and other vulnerable refugees about important procedures and other relevant information, encouraging them, helping them to access health care and accommodation and dealing with all their urgent needs.

It is often a persistent struggle that implies a humane and dedicated attitude of the APC staff towards refugees, but at the same time it involves a struggle with institutions, local politics and bureaucracy so that the system starts functioning in the cases of endangered refugees. We are trying to establish control in such circumstances, knowing that APC field teams are almost the only local people working on the field and helping refugees along the border areas.

There are many examples like this, but the APC organization tries to reach as many people as possible, talk to them, advise them and help them solve at least some of the many problems they face day by day.