Hundreds of migrants have been targeted in a manhunt launched by Serbian police in Sombor city, northwest of the country.
The sweep culminated in the detention of nearly 700 irregular migrants, including over 26 Palestinians from Syria.
A Palestinian migrant told AGPS that Serbian police forced the migrants into 11 buses before they pushed them back to the Macedonian borders. Police vans escorted the migrants who were placed in a border migrant facility.
In a landmark ruling exclusively seen by DW, Serbia’s top court confirmed that Serbian security personnel had illegally deported several asylum-seekers from Serbia over the past few years, instead of issuing proper paperwork and accommodating them in a shelter.
For years, human rights activists have criticized border officers, police and military staff for brutally mistreating migrants along the Balkan route. And for years, authorities in the respective western Balkan states have denied that migrants have been deported in contravention of international law in what have become known as pushbacks. Very few courts have so far ruled on the matter, making the verdict by Serbia’s constitutional court a momentous ruling.