A joint research by international broadcasters exposed the secret immigration prisons of the European Union (EU).
According to the research, security forces along EU borders – especially in Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia – were using these secret facilities to systematically detain people seeking refuge before illegally deporting them.
The refugees were being held in a cage-like structure in Bulgaria for days, held for hours in overcrowded and dangerously hot vans in Croatia, and held in containers and at an isolated petrol station in Hungary, the research said.
It was stated in the records that asylum seekers were kept lying on the ground in the garbage, and were taken to another place by cars.
It was recorded that the immigrants, who were kept in the barracks for days without food and water, were then forced to return to Türkiye by the police.
Broadcasting organizations demonstrated similar practices in Hungary as well as in Bulgaria. It was stated in the footage that refugees were forced into ship containers with batons by the Hungarian border police.
In their statements, the refugees said that they were kept inside these containers for hours without being given food and water, and then they were taken to the border by buses and forced to return to Serbia.
One of the refugees reportedly said even his shoes had been confiscated by the border authorities.
The EU has expressed concern over illegal treatment of people crossing borders to claim asylum, but this has not stopped it from providing money to the border authorities responsible: Bulgaria has received €320m in recent years, Croatia €163m and Hungary €144m.
