Category: Nagyfa

Planned legislation would return people to the transit zone, and arbitrary decision-making at the Immigration Office: Hungary updates May 18th - May 24th

25/5/2016

With our first and second situation update, we have started a series of documentation in which we report every other week about the asylum situation in Hungary. The information either comes from us, or then we collect information from people working in the ground about camps, detention centers, transit zones and the border areas and make relevant up to date information available in English.

Overview on the Balkan route and numbers

This week a lot of changes have taken place along the Balkan route. While the EU-Turkey deal got blocked by Greece as Greek courts decided Turkey is not a safe country for refugees, and the evacuation of thousands of people in Eidomeni by Greek authorities has started, Bulgaria is planning to build more fence on its border with Greece and Turkey to limit the entry of asylum seekers. The number of people continuing to arrive in Serbia - where supporting infrastructure is urgently needed - and travelling on to Hungary is growing. According to the Hungarian border police 776 people were registered to enter into Hungary under the fence, and were apprehended between May 18th and 23th. UNHCR estimates the number of people entering Hungary from 18th to 22nd at around 772 people in total. For Austria, up to date information on the numbers is unfortunately not available. In comparison to the last weeks this means that the numbers are rising.

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Week April 28th - May 5th 2016 - Hungarian Situation update

5/5/2016

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One of the ways we at MigSzol think we can influence the current situation is through documentation. Many might think that since the events of last year, the situation has calmed down and there is no longer anything happening in Hungary. This is far from the truth. Many people are still passing through Hungary every day and recently the importance of Hungary as a transit country has been increasing again. Every week there are many things happening at both the Serbian and the Austrian borders and the situation is often changing quickly. And even though most of the camps are full (and often overcrowded again), there is very little information about the conditions there available.

MigSzol is in a good position to have access to many sources and other groups who work in the field. We make use of this by documenting the situation in Hungary as often as possible. For this reason, we are starting a situation diary. Every other week, we will publish updates with general information about the situation at the borders and in the camps that we gather from our different sources all over the country. We hope this will provide information to other organizations elsewhere in Europe to keep up to date and serve as a reference for the conditions in Hungary.

Most importantly, see here for the information leaflet prepared by the Hungarian Helsinki committee. It is available in ten languages, and we would like to stress that the HHC is the number one source for updates on the legal situation of people on the move. We also recommend you to follow the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (@hhc_helsinki) and Migszol Csoport (@migszolcsop) on Twitter.

A steady number of people are transiting through Hungary every day

During the week in between April 22nd to 28th there were 1051 “illegal border crossings” recorded by the police into Hungary (this number does not include the people entering Hungary at the transit zones and the people crossing without being caught) and 1401 crossed into Austria (UNHCR numbers). This gives an idea of a regular flow through the country. People usually stay few days in Hungary before trying to leave.

Nagyfa closed and new camp opening in Kormend

The Office of Immigration and Nationality (OIN) held a press meeting in Körmend about the new camp and said that more than 10 000 refugees have disappeared from Hungary since they registered here. Dukai Miklós, Deputy of Ministry of the Interior, said that of the 12 000 registered asylum seekers there are 1777 people in in the open camps now, as reported on ATV.

Nagyfa camp next to the Serbian border has been closed. The new camp in Körmend next to the Austrian border opened on Monday 2nd of May. Asylum seekers are being brought from other open camps by buses. Already two of those who were brought to Körmend tried to cross to Austria and were caught on the train in Szentgotthard. They were brought back to the camp. The Hungarian extreme right party, Jobbik, is planning a demonstration against the camp on Friday, 6th of May.

Austria is planning to pass a new restrictive law for asylum seekers which will allow push backs towards Hungary. The authorities have begun to check every car arriving from Hungary on certain crossings.

Hungarian and Serbian border Update - Transit zones:

There are two tranzit zones on the Hungarian and Serbian border: Rôszke/ Horgos and Tompa/ Kelebija. These zones are the two legal entry points to enter and ask for asylum in Hungary. They have been available since their creation in September 2015, when Hungary built the fence and implemented new regulations that, among others, define Serbia as a safe third country. What has changed in the past months (since February) is that mostly families are coming to apply for asylum in the transit zones.

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“Please leave, the guards don’t like you” - Migszol in Bicske

13/4/2016

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After a long winter, it was such a sunny weekend to go to Bicske on Sunday, March 13. When we arrived, we were surprised to see a bus full of people unloading. While a familiar scene up until a couple of months ago, after the establishment of the border fence we did not expect to see so many people arriving to the camp once again. . We tried to speak with the new arrivals through the gate as usual, but this time an angry guard started yelling at us to keep away from the gate, even though we did not break a single rule.

We tried to stay focused on what we were there for, so we invited people to come outside beyond the camp’s gate so that we could talk to them. We started to distribute the flyers we brought about the annual Nowruz party we were planning together with Menedék and “Let's help” group, as well as spoke to people about the CEU Open Learning Initiative (OLIve) for refugees that was about to go into its second round after a successful first semester.

Since the legal information in the camps is very limited, another goal was to communicate the most recent changes in the asylum law (see our previous blog posts for details). Most of the people we were talking to were trying to figure out how to leave Hungary towards Western Europe as soon and as safely as possible. Consequently, the recent changes in the Hungarian asylum law were among the least of their concerns: they knew that, in most likelihood, what awaits them in Hungary is homelessness.

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Planned legislation would return people to the transit zone, and arbitrary decision-making at the Immigration Office: Hungary updates May 18th - May 24th

Week April 28th - May 5th 2016 - Hungarian Situation update

“Please leave, the guards don’t like you” - Migszol in Bicske

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Planned legislation would return people to the transit zone, and arbitrary decision-making at the Immigration Office: Hungary updates May 18th - May 24th

Week April 28th - May 5th 2016 - Hungarian Situation update

“Please leave, the guards don’t like you” - Migszol in Bicske

Author

Archives

Categories

Contact us

﻿Migrant Solidarity Group﻿

Migrant Solidarity Group