„If you leave your fingerprints in Austria – you are finished!“: New route through Slovakia and Czech Republic to Germany

Klikaktiv’s team visit to the old milk factory in Majdan, a village on the Romanian border on the 3rd of February, 2022. We met a group of Syrians who immediately asked us if the Slovakian police was also beating up refugees in the same manner like the Hungarian and Romanian police was doing. Then they explained that they were asking this because they were planning to get to Germany by entering Romania first, then going to Hungary, and then crossing Slovakia and Czech territory on their way to Germany. This route has become active in the last month and allegedly a large number of people have already managed to reach Germany. They were doing this because they wanted to avoid Austria. One of them told us that he had tried to cross the Hungarian border twice in the previous 18 days and that both times the Hungarian police were accompanied by the Austrian police, who also beat him and pushed him back to Serbia. "The police car they put me in had Austrian license plates, so that is how I know that those police officers are from Austria," he told us. This group also told us that they had heard that a lot of their fellow nationals have been returned to Austria from other EU countries, which is another thing they want to avoid. "If you leave fingerprints in Austria - you're finished!", said one of the guys from the group.

An informal settlement of people on the move in Majdan, a village near Serbia’s borders with Hungary and Romania.