You have probably seen the latest news about the violence against people seeking international protection at the Southern border of Hungary. Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon. Since last summer and changing the law about the border crossing, more and more testimonies and reports about serious violence at the Southern borders of Hungary have been spread (eg. the UNHCR, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International or lately the Doctors Without Borders, Fresh Response and the testimonies published on the blog of Migrant Solidarity Group of Hungary).
The asylum legislation has become increasingly harsh and exclusionary in the past year:
since January the authorities decreased the number of applicants per day admitted to the transit zones once more. With the new asylum detention law, which detains everybody during the asylum procedure and the extremely harsh push-back laws (that the police is allowed to ‘escort back’ the migrants to the gates of the transit zones, meaning push backs to the other side of the fence) it is almost impossible to apply for asylum in Hungary now.
At the same time, the continuous growth of using weapons, armed forces and army-like preparations of the police, including newly formed and freshly recruited border hunter units, as well as the recent changes in the legislation worry us significantly - it’s like Hungary is in a war with people who are seeking asylum. Also, there are no official, transparent documentation about what is the connection of more and more weapons at the border, and the huge number of violence that happens, but we demand this to change.
Even if it is only a small gesture, there is something we can personally do: email the Ministry of Interior and demand them to take those uncountable cases of uniformed violence at the border seriously and start investigate these.
The asylum legislation has become increasingly harsh and exclusionary in the past year:
since January the authorities decreased the number of applicants per day admitted to the transit zones once more. With the new asylum detention law, which detains everybody during the asylum procedure and the extremely harsh push-back laws (that the police is allowed to ‘escort back’ the migrants to the gates of the transit zones, meaning push backs to the other side of the fence) it is almost impossible to apply for asylum in Hungary now.
At the same time, the continuous growth of using weapons, armed forces and army-like preparations of the police, including newly formed and freshly recruited border hunter units, as well as the recent changes in the legislation worry us significantly - it’s like Hungary is in a war with people who are seeking asylum. Also, there are no official, transparent documentation about what is the connection of more and more weapons at the border, and the huge number of violence that happens, but we demand this to change.
Even if it is only a small gesture, there is something we can personally do: email the Ministry of Interior and demand them to take those uncountable cases of uniformed violence at the border seriously and start investigate these.
