More than 70 migrants who arrived at the Serbian-North Macedonia border in early February said they were beaten, robbed and stripped to their underwear by Serbian police before being pushed back into North Macedonia, according to the Skopje-based NGO, Legis. Serbian police on Thursday (February 22) denied the claims.

On February 15 Legis posted a video on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) showing several men walking barefoot and in only their underwear on a road at night. According to the NGO, locals filmed the video on a road between the border and the North Macedonian village of Lojane, where the first migrants arrived on February 9. No further information was given about the migrants' countries of origin. 

According to Jasmin Redjepi, president of Legis, the "disturbing and degrading" pushbacks occurred shortly after an EU-Serbian border cooperation summit, which aimed to bolster Serbia's border security against human-smuggling activities, as reported by The Guardian. Redjepi also said that these are the first reports of migrants being stripped naked on the border between Serbia and North Macedonia. Both countries are on the so-called Balkans route, used by migrants heading towards Western Europe.

Belgrade denies events took place on Serbian territory 

The migrants claimed that "Serbian police officers beat them, unleashed police dogs that bit them .. stripped them to their underwear and forced them to return to North Macedonia on foot," Serbia's interior minister said in a statement on Thursday, adding that North Macedonian border authorities had requested their Serbian counterparts to explain what happened to the migrants.

Belgrade's interior ministry also said checks were carried out at a regional border police center and established that there were no Serbian police patrols in that area at that time. 

Serbian border police do not use dogs for border surveillance nor do they have them within their unit, the ministry said. There was no confirmation that the "disputed events took place on the territory of Serbia," news agency AFP reported, citing a statement from the Serbian interior ministry.

With an increase in irregular migrants in Europe, Serbia has been working to "suppress irregular migration with an absolute respect for human rights, which is recognized by the international community," the statement added.

During the first 10 months of 2023, almost 100,000 migrants used the Balkan route to reach Western Europe, according to Frontex, the European Union's border management agency.

With AFP