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20 images Created 21 May 2018

PHOTO MONTH BULGARIA

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  • "They (Hungarian police) send dogs on you when you are asleep. This is a photo of my face after it happened. The dog bit my face and hands"- refugee from Pakistan, Adasevci refugee camp, Serbia
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  • Argi escaped Kobani (Syria) after he was tortured by the regime fearing for his life. Unable to cross the border at Idomeni, he and his wife found a little space to shelter just outside the doors of what once was an operating lift in the disused airport Hellenikon. This is how I met them when I entered the building hiding from the security. Still walking in crutches, he shows me graphic pictures of the violence inflicted on him. Visibly traumatised with his wife pregnant and children, he has not received any assistance ever since they arrived in Hellenikon over two weeks earlier.
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  • 'The Hungarian border police struck me with a baton and knives.'. a refugee from Pakistan recounted at the In Adasevci camp in Serbia. Unfortunately, the number of those that have been beaten, humiliated and tortured from border police is staggering.
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  • A refugee from Afghanistan: “The Hungarian police, they do like a Kosher, they take your skin and then they put a hook in it” He showed me a photo of his injuries.  Adasevci refugee camp, Serbia
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  • "They are cold people, the Bulgarian police. Even if you have a short time document pass, they still do the same thing. In the centre of Sofia, not at the border, they take everything from us, they took us to the jungle, the permit,  my money, mobile, they took everything and then they push us back."
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  • Miksaliste aid centre in Belgrade is the city's main support centre where refugees can receive basic medical help, clothes and the first assistance. Many come into the centre exhausted physically and psychologically,  from their horrendoeus journey, anxiety and at times encount of police violence.  I often had to resort to google translate to be able to communicate with refugees. As I asked how was the journey to Belgrade a refugee writes 'Beating'. Belgrade, Serbia
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  • ‘We try the game almost everyday. We don’t have options. There is no life for us. The prospect of spending days just waiting with no work, no money, no home, nothing is painful. If I cannot go through the border, I will go back home. I will die with more dignity. This is a photo from the last time we tried..in the jungle.. we were pushed back.’ Belgrade, Serbia.
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  • A large number of refugees try to cross the border in desperate bid to go to Germany, Italy, UK, often to unite with members of family and/or in the pursuit of a faster asylum, work and or study. Their attempts are risky and increasingly riskier. Many are pushed back, and a greater number are beaten by police guards. Some lose their lives.
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  • "They come on you when you are sleeping. One friend of mine he was sleeping and the police dogs came on him and bit his hands and face. I have the picture of my friend. You can see his face. This happened on the Hungarian border." Sid, Serbia, June 2017.
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  • 'The Hungarian border police struck me with batons and knives'- a refugee from Pakistan at the  Adasevci camp in Serbia recounted. The number of reports pointing to border police using violence on refugees is staggering. Refugees report on being beaten, humiliated and evem tortured.
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  • ‘I heard people behind me shouting “Malaka” [wanker] and immediately after someone started to slapping me. I asked ‘Why?’ but they just carried on attacking me, throwing me back and forth like a football ball. Then I saw a knife been taken out and I was knifed. I collapsed. I was left for dead on the pavement before the police was called six hours later. The police station was 2 minutes away.’Sila, asylum seeker from Guinea, Athens, Greece.
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  • "The Hungarian police took my shoes, clothes and mobile phone. They told me to cross the river and had to walk for two days without shoes. It was winter. I arrived in a village in Turkey without clothes." refugee from Pakistan, Adasevci refugee camp, Serbia.
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  • 'They sprayed on us- the Hungarian police. It was tear gas. I thought I was dying. I couldn't breath. They beat us. It was so difficult for all of us.’- refugee from Pakistan. Some refugees refuse to register into a camp because it means having to wait for a very long time. Recent regulations have diminished border entry to one person per day (Hungary, Serbia) prioritising women, children and refugees from Syria. This translates a life in a camp for years. The alternative is to risk ones life crossing the border illegally. Horgos refugee camp, Serbia.
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  • He showed me a scar running through his arm. He says,'this happened when the Bulgarian police saw us.The Bulgarian police attacked us. That's the problem. They beat us. They don't care. We are too scared of them'.
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  • ‘I knew I was going to be beaten. A group of Bulgarian youths, maybe 12 of them, wearing black hoods covering their faces, came up to me and asked if I could speak Bulgarian. I knew that the question was to determine my refugee status and to ascertain that I was not able to seek help. They pushed me in the bus shelter so that I ha no escape routes. I was beaten but managed to escape running as fast as I could. When I was given medication at the Red Cross, the police was called and asked me what I wanted them to do. I said that Id did not care that those that beat me would be punished, but I wanted it to stop and protection so that we could go out without fearing for our lives.’ Mohamed, refugee from Afghanistan,Voempa Rampa, Sofia, Bulgaria.
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  • ‘I was in the jungle for 5 days. When I tried to enter Bulgaria, I was pushed back. Some people died in the jungle because of no food, water and cold weather. I walked for 12 hours. If you don’t have money for an agent (smuggler) you are stuck. The agent is the only choice but they don't care for you.’ Karim, outside Voenna Rampa refugee centre, Sofia, Bulgaria.
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  • "Bulgarian police here is not like in the rest of Europe. They don't respect you. They don't see us as human. They see us as another creature."  S.,Sofia, Bulgaria, 2018
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  • ‘I lost my home in Pakistan, I had nothing. When I came through the border in Bulgaria, the police stopped me. I had no documents. I paid them money. If you don’t have money to pay them, they take you to the police station and beat you. They hate refugees, I think. One time, I was going to take a train to Sofia city centre with two of my friends, a group of people came down from another train and I knew they were coming to beat us. I saw the train next to me about to go and in a split of a second, I jumped in. I saved myself. My friends were badly beaten.’ <br />
Q., Sofia, Bulgaria.
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  • ‘Border police send dogs on us, they beat us every time I tried to cross the border. One time, I lost the group of friends I was with and I was three nights and three days alone in the jungle. I was scared and I also became ill. I went back to the Bulgarian border police and I asked them to help me. They didn’t, they beat him and then sent him to Busmantsi detention centre.’ Voenna Rampa, Bulgaria.
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  • I met M. in AC Krnjaca refugee camp just coming from an hospital. During the night he was trying to cross to Croatia and was beaten,. His arm was fractured. He recounts: ‘I was going to cross into Croatia border coming from Serbia. I had a lot of beating, bones broken. They left me in pain just lying on the floor, like that.’ M., AC Krnjaca refugee camp, Belgrade, Serbia.
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