The Guardian: “They Treated Her Like a Dog”– Tragedy of a Six-Year-Old Killed at Croatian Border

The death of six-year-old Madina Hussiny has shed light on an enduring sociopolitical problem along Europe’s borders – the precarious status of asylum seekers and refugees. Emma Graham-Harrison observes for the Guardian, “The tragedy of the Hussiny family, who tried to reach Croatia after spending nearly a year in Serbia hoping for legal passage into Hungary, was the latest in a string of deaths and injuries to children and adults across the Balkans.” According to multiple human rights groups, the border police of Hungary, Bulgaria and Croatia, “have responded by forcing any people they catch back over the frontier, often violently.” After an oncoming train hit and killed the child, the Hussiny family found its way to the Croatian border police, pleading for help from the same officers who had ordered the family to leave by way of the railroad tracks at night. The interior ministry claims that Croatian policy on migrants and refugees follows European Union law. However, aid and human rights organizations have documented hundreds of cases in which people with the legal right to claim asylum have been forcibly rejected at the borders of Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria. –YaleGlobal