According to the latest judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union, in the Röszke transit zone the Hungarian government does not guarantee migrants’ rights and keeps them in detention, Justice Minister Judit Varga told the Hungarian news agency MTI on Thursday.
The government’s position remains unchanged, the Hungarian legislation and practice are compatible with EU and international law as migrants would have been able to leave the transit zone towards Serbia at any time. “It is incomprehensible that the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union adopted clashing decisions on an issue that is prominently important from the viewpoint of the protection of the borders and future of Europe,” Ms. Varga said.
The two preliminary rulings were requested back in December 2019 by the Szeged Administrative and Labour Court in procedures concerning persons in the Röszke transit zone who were the subjects of return decisions. In its Ilias and Ahmed judgement of 21 November 2019, the European Court of Human Rights concluded that the placement of asylum-seekers in the transit zone does not qualify as detention.
By the Justice Minister’s account, in contrast to this, in its most recent judgement the Court of Justice of the European Union took the view that the placing of migrants in the Röszke transit zone must be classified as ‘detention’. According to the court, if, following judicial review of the lawfulness of such detention, it is established that the persons concerned have been detained for no valid reason, the court hearing the case must release them with immediate effect. However, the persons concerned are not asylum-seekers, their applications were rejected, and therefore they are not allowed to be legally present in Hungary, Ms. Varga stressed. The European Court’s decision means that they want to force Hungary to let immigrants in uncontrolled and to allow their continued residence in the country. This is unacceptable and contrary to Hungary’s Fundamental Law. Therefore, the government will also scrutinise this legal situation and its consequences from a constitutional point of view, the Justice Minister said.