Serbia Hits Back at HRW Claim that Police Harass Migrants, Asylum Seekers

Serbian police routinely harass and abuse illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, a claim immediately denied by the country's interior ministry.

The watchdog interviewed dozens of migrants and asylum seekers who "described violent assaults, threats, insults, and extortion, denial of the required special protection for unaccompanied children, and summary returns to the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia," an HRW report released in New York said.

But the Serbian interior ministry rejected the accusations.

"Claims that migrants and asylum seekers presented to HRW are not supported by any evidence that would help to establish the responsibility of (Serbian) police and border police," a ministry statement said.

But HRW activist Emina Cerimovic said that "Serbian authorities should be protecting asylum seekers and immigrants, including children fleeing war and persecution, not allowing the police to victimize them." 

"The authorities should put an immediate stop to police intimidation and abuse and hold those responsible to account," she said in a statement.

Between November and January the HRW interviewed a total of 81 asylum seekers and migrants, including 18 children, at various locations in Serbia and Macedonia.

Serbia is not a member of the European Union but has a land access to three members of the bloc -- Romania, Hungary and Croatia.

Thus illegal immigrants, namely from Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia, pass through Serbian territory on their journey towards the EU.

Many of those arrested by Serbian police claim the right to seek asylum.

Since the beginning of the year some 13,000 people filed asylum applications in neighboring Hungary compared with 43,000 in 2014, according to the Hungarian authorities.

Serbia lies on the so-called Balkans route used by criminal groups to smuggle people, drugs and weapons into Western Europe.