Hungary failed to comply to EU Immigration Laws

The European Union’s top court ruled today Thursday that Hungary violated the law by depriving immigrants from seeking asylum and moving many to transit camps.

“Hungary has failed to fulfill its obligations under EU law in the area of procedures for granting international protection,” the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said.

In 2015 and 2017, the country passed controversial laws that created transit zones on Hungary’s border with Serbia, mandating that all asylum applications must be filed in the camps,

The laws also introduced the concept of a “crisis situation caused by mass immigration,” which the government used to justify circumventing EU asylum law. The government said its strict policies were necessary to maintain public order and preserve internal security. But the 2015 migration crisis did not justify Hungary’s decision to override EU rules.

In particular, Hungary’s policies present a breach of the EU directives on procedures, reception, and return. These directives lay down for all EU member states the common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection, the reception of asylum seekers as well as procedures for returning those who are staying in the country illegally.

The court found Hungary did not allow asylum seekers to leave detention while their cases were considered and offered no special protection to children and the vulnerable and stated that EU member countries cannot “delay asylum applications unjustifiably.”

Where asylum claims have been rejected, in some cases “those nationals are forcibly escorted, by the police, from the other side of a fence erected a few meters from the border with Serbia, to a strip of land devoid of any infrastructure.”

This was deemed a breach of an EU directive establishing safeguards for the removal of illegal immigrants.