Hungary to push ahead with detention of asylum seekers

Hungary is to introduce plans to detain asylum seekers as they await the result of their legal appeals in a move that is expected to bring fresh legal clashes with the EU institutions in Brussels.

The new plans, which appear to contravene EU guidelines forbidding the detention of asylum seekers, are to be introduced "in weeks" according to the Hungarian government’s chief spokesman.

Zoltán Kovács

“We are going to introduce new measures: no migrants, not even those who have already issued their request for asylum, can move freely. Whether they are entitled for political asylum, refugee status or anything else,” said Zoltán Kovács on a visit to London.

Mr Kovács said he expected the move to go off “like a bomb” in Brussels, but would press ahead anyway in order to protect the EU’s external borders and stop the abuse of the border-free Schengen Area that has enabled hundreds of thousands of migrants to travel through Europe since 2015.

“What we’ve seen in the past is asylum seekers abusing the legal framework of Hungarian and EU law,” he added, “Instead of waiting for the final decision they head for Germany, Britain and the Nordic countries and within Schengen it is impossible to stop this.”

The EU directive covering the reception and treatment of asylum seekers states that claimants should “not be held in detention for the sole reason that he or she is seeking international protection”, and can only be detained under “clearly defined exceptional circumstances”.

Mr Kovács said that Hungary’s ministry of justice would be seeking a formula that would satisfy lawyers in Brussels, noting that asylum seekers would be free to leave Europe, so in that narrow sense would not be ‘detained’.

The move is the latest in a series of clashes with Brussels over migration which began when Hungary erected a border fence in October 2015 - in the face of EU condemnation - and has continued over the imposition of migrant resettlement quotas which Hungary rejects.

Last week at an EU summit in Malta, the EU announced a 200m euro package of new measures to combat migration, including boosting protection of the EU external border and deepening ties with African countries, including Libya, to stem the flow of migrants.

Hungary believes the new EU stance offers belated “vindication” its own tough stance on migration. Theresa May welcomed the EU measures last weekend, announcing that Britain will contribute 600,000 euros to help train the coastguard as part of the package.

Britain will also fund a £2.5 million Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF) which will give quick-response to migrants in needs through the Start Network, a global grouping of more than 40 aid agencies whose secretariat is based in Britain.