The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) accused Hungary of holding asylum seekers in a camp on the border with Serbia in “unlawful detention.”
The case was brought to the ECJ in 2019 by two Iranian and two Afghan migrants whose asylum applications were rejected by the Hungarian authorities.
The men, who arrived in Hungary in late 2018 and early 2019 after crossing the border from Serbia, have been living in a camp in the village of Röszke at the Serbian-Hungarian border as they were waiting for their asylum applications to be processed.
The Hungarian authorities ruled their asylum applications “inadmissible” because they had passed through a “safe transit country,” Serbia, which also refused to readmit them. Hungary instead ordered the deportation of the men to their home countries.
The men, who took the case to the ECJ, argued that their treatment was contrary to a European directive issued in 2013 laying down standards for the reception of applicants for international protection.
Following the examination of the case, Advocate General Priit Pikamäe released an opinion statement saying that since Serbia refused to readmit the four men, it was Hungary’s responsibility to reexamine their asylum application.
Therefore, the men’s accommodation in Röszke “must be classified as unlawful,” he supported, as Hungary didn’t comply with the reception directive laid out by the EU.
“Asylum seekers accommodated there are physically cut off from the outside world and forced to live in a situation of isolation,” the statement read, adding that their freedom of movement was restricted to “such an extent that it constitutes detention.”
Advocate General’s opinion is not binding on the Court of Justice, with the latter expected to deliver its judgment at a later date.
