Hunted in Hungary, refugees are greeted with open arms in Germany

Hungary built a massive fence (10 feet tall and stretching 181 miles along the border with Serbia and Croatia) to keep out migrants and refugees. Any who make it across illegally are tracked down by people in uniform — including police officers and "border hunter action unit" personnel — and are literally pushed back across the border, with their bones broken, their possessions missing and their fragile sense of security shattered.

"These are very brutal physical attacks," Andras Lederer, information and advocacy officer for the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, told me. His group provides legal counsel to refugees and has started documenting abuse against people at the border. "It's indiscriminate, so women, children, unaccompanied children, men, the elderly, the handicapped [are all targeted]. It doesn't matter."

The refugees from Syria and Afghanistan now camping along the border don't have electricity, Wi-Fi or even showers. Some were cheated and then abandoned by smugglers. Most have no idea what will happen to them next. The people hunting them, meanwhile, have mobile thermo-vision cameras, night-vision goggles, helicopters and dogs.

Ream more…