Hungary
hardens immigration line
Prime
Minister Orbán’s government expects protests from Brussels but has
vowed to press ahead.
By TOM
MCTAGUE 2/7/17, 4:01 AM CET
LONDON — Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will introduce measures within weeks to
hold immigrants in detention “shelters” indefinitely in order to
stop them traveling freely within Europe, his spokesman said on
Monday.
Under Orbán’s
proposal, those entering Hungary illegally — even if they are
fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East and Africa — will be
kept in government camps, banned from moving freely within Hungary,
until their status has been resolved, which could take “months.”
Speaking at the
Hungarian embassy in London Monday, Orbán’s spokesman Zoltan
Kovacs said the policy was necessary because of the borderless
Schengen zone, which he claimed was being “systematically” abused
by migrants looking to reach Western Europe.
While the plan is
bound to spark fierce criticism in Brussels, Orbán’s government
appears to be convinced it is winning the argument on tighter
immigration controls and has vowed to press ahead despite objections,
as it did with the construction of its controversial border fence
with Serbia.
Budapest has clashed
with Brussels before on the issue, most notably last year when it
rejected an EU refugee resettlement plan and in 2015 when Hungarian
police fired tear gas and water cannons against migrants on its
border. But Orbán’s government has been emboldened by the election
of U.S. President Donald Trump. In a speech last month, Orbán
welcomed Trump’s election, saying it heralds a new age where
countries are free to put their interests first. “The era of
multilateralism is at an end, and the era of bilateral relations is
upon us,” he said.
Currently, refugees
awaiting decisions on their asylum cases are split into two different
kinds of camps. Some, including many families, are placed in open
camps where they are allowed to leave the camp during the day.
Other refugees,
however, are in asylum detention, a status that deprives them of
freedom of movement but is legally limited to a maximum of six
months, with a mandatory court review every two months to determine
whether detention is truly necessary.
A hardline agenda
The first mention of
a shift in open camp policies came on January 12, when János Lázár,
the head of the prime minister’s office, made an announcement that
refugees will not be allowed to move around Hungary while their cases
are still pending.
Hungary believes its
hardline agenda is slowly being adopted by other member countries who
have come round to its view that the only way to check the flow of
migrants is to stop them reaching Europe in the first place or
restrict their ability to travel freely if they do.
“What was
denounced as insane is starting to rule the agenda” — Orbán’s
spokesma Zoltan Kovacs
Orbán’s
government believes last week’s summit in Malta was “a turning
point.” With the building of refugee camps in North Africa now “one
of the major projects of the European Union.”
“What was
denounced as insane is starting to rule the agenda,” Kovacs said.
“You have to stop migration beyond Europe’s borders. The
recognition is very welcome.”
Kovacs claimed that
at the moment migrants were getting a “free ride” to cross the
Mediterranean because European authorities were not prepared to
return them to North Africa. “If you don’t put physical barriers
on the borders, human traffickers are going to carry on their
business.”
He went further,
claiming that because all migrants either had to cross the
Mediterranean illegally to reach Europe or to pass through a number
of safe countries en route, “everybody who comes to the EU as a
migrant is basically coming illegally.”
The election of
Trump has also given Hungary’s government fresh confidence to
pursue its agenda. “The change in the perception of the United
States has helped,” Kovacs said.
Human rights
concerns
The Hungarian
government’s new immigration measure is designed to curtail the
rights of migrants once they have made it into the Schengen zone.
Kovacs said: “We
are going to introduce a new measure — no migrants, not even those
who have achieved their request for asylum, can move freely until
there is a final, legal decision whether they are entitled to
political asylum or refugee status. They will not be entitled to move
freely in the country.”
He said at the
moment many were abusing the system by applying for asylum and then
moving on before their case was settled.
“Within Schengen,
it is impossible to stop this,” he said. “You have to reinforce
your borders, establish the rules that only legal migrants can enter
the European Union, otherwise it’s not going to work.”
The Hungarian
government’s plans, however, have prompted deep concern from both
Hungarian and international observers, who believe the new policies
are illegal.
“Blanket detention
of asylum seekers goes against Hungary’s obligations under the
Refugee Convention and EU law,” said Lydia Gall, Balkans and
Eastern Europe Researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Detention should
always be a very last resort and there are clear cut criteria where
detention may be used. It should always be decided on a case-by-case
basis and never as a general measure.”
“The government
should refrain from restricting freedom of movement of asylum seekers
and provide open facilities” — Lydia Gall, Human Rights Watch
Kovacs denied the
new “shelters” amounted to detention camps because the migrants
and refugees would be allowed to leave to go back to their home
countries whenever they wanted.
“It’s not about
detention, it’s about not giving the same opportunity for them as
is being provided for European citizens.”
He added: “We
think in terms of shelters that are going to be provided according to
EU and international standards, that are open the other way around.
If someone decides that he or she is not going to wait weeks, maybe
months, for a final decision… if someone decided they would like to
go back it will be possible.
“So, it’s not
going to be a detention center. Freedom of movement is going to be
provided the other way around — just not toward Europe. We don’t
let people onto the soil of Europe until they have been checked.”
Kovacs said the
Hungarian government expected an angry reaction from Brussels to his
government’s latest measure. “From previous experience, we think
there is going to be a large bump, based on the perception,” he
said.
The new policy will
be up and running before March, Orbán’s spokesman added. “Within
two weeks we are going to have a new regulation formulated.
“If it comes
together, we believe that reducing the numbers is only possible
through these measures.”
Journalists will be
barred from visiting the camps to verify the conditions migrants and
refugees are living in. But Kovacs promised that they would meet
international standards. Shelter, food and education for children
will be provided, he said.
But observers also
worry refugees will be relegated to living in sub-standard
conditions.
“If the government
says that it will meet international standards, then why would it bar
outside observers from monitoring conditions in camps?” said Gall.
“The government should refrain from restricting freedom of movement
of asylum seekers and provide open facilities where they can be
accommodated in human and dignified conditions until decisions are
made in their individual cases, as required by the refugee convention
and EU law.”
Lili Bayer
contributed reporting.
Austria
renews push to secure Balkan route
‘We
don’t think the EU is adequately protecting its external borders,’
Austrian defense minister said.
By ESTHER
KING 2/7/17, 9:36 AM CET
Vienna plans to
increase cooperation with 15 countries along the Balkan route to keep
migrants from reaching northern Europe, Die Welt reported Tuesday.
“We don’t think
the EU is adequately protecting its external borders,” Defense
Minister Hans Peter Doskozil, a member of Austria’s Social
Democratic party, told the paper in an interview.
Austria is working
on a “Balkan border protection initiative” in anticipation of the
possibility Ankara could back out of the EU-Turkey migration deal and
open the floodgates to a new wave of migration. Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the defense minister said, has proven he is
“no trustworthy partner of the EU.”
Despite the bloc’s
commitment to shut down the Balkan route last June, a few weeks
before the EU-Turkey deal entered into force, it has remained active
and is used by between 500 and 1,000 migrants to get to Austria on a
weekly basis, according to Doskozil.
Austria is ready to
send its soldiers to other states — both inside and outside the EU
— to help protect their borders, if the countries don’t have the
means to do so themselves, Doskozil said.
As US turns its back
on refugees, Europe should step up
In case of a renewed
migrant crisis, Austria’s proposed border control initiative would
allow for clear lines of communication between police and military
chiefs in the countries involved.
The number of
illegal migrants in the EU as a whole is still “far too high,”
Doskozil said, and called for the bloc to hold an “EU deportation
summit” to agree on European-wide measures to expel those whose
asylum claims have been denied.
At a foreign affairs
council meeting focused on Libya this week in Brussels, Austrian
Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz called for migrants fleeing Libya to
be sent back.
“Whoever makes
their way to Europe illegally will be stopped at the borders, taken
care of and sent back,” Kurz said.
Authors:
Esther King
.webp)
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