Hungary is being forced by the European Court of Human Rights to pay thousands of pounds to two migrants for keeping them in a border transit zone.
The court ruled today the Hungarian government has to pay £8,750 each to the two Bangladeshi men – Ilias Ilias and Ali Ahmed – which could affect plans agreed last week to detain thousands of asylum seekers in border camps.
Both men filed a suit against the country in September 2015 - the height of the migrant crisis - after Hungarian officials put up a fence on its southern borders and created two transit zones for asylum seekers in a bid to curb numbers arriving via the Balkans.
The pair wanted to be released from the transit zone and asked for their expulsion to Serbia to be halted.
This judgment is particularly relevant now in Hungary because the Strasbourg court has found that detaining asylum seekers in the transit zone without any formal procedure and access to judicial remedy is unlawful - Marta Pardavi
Today the court ruled the pair's detention in the transit zone was unlawful under the European Convention of Human Rights, but admitted there was “no violation of the convention in respect of the conditions of detention at the transit zone”.
The Strasbourg court ruling is subject to appeal, but for now Hungary has been ordered to pay £8,750 (€10,000) to each of the men.
Hungary’s Government will also have to pay a further £7,610 to cover their court expenses and costs.
The ruling came less than a week after Hungary passed legislation which aims to keep all migrants in detention camps on the border until their asylum requests are processed.
United Nations officials have strongly criticised the new legislation.
The UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, said last week the number of asylum applications in Hungary reached 177,000 in 2015 but fell sharply to 29,000 last year.
Just 912 applications have been made in the first two months of 2017, UNHCR said.
A UNHCR spokeswoman said all asylum seekers would be kept in a transit zone where the detentions centres are located, effectively condemning them to prolonged detentions in shipping containers surrounded by barbed wire.
Marta Pardavi, co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which represented the migrants’ case in court, said: "This judgment is particularly relevant now in Hungary because the Strasbourg court has found that detaining asylum seekers in the transit zone without any formal procedure and access to judicial remedy is unlawful.
"This already ongoing practice of unlawful detention in the transit zone is exactly what the Hungarian newly adopted law foresees for every asylum seeker, so it's clear: the new law is against the European Convention on Human Rights."
The Hungarian Government was not immediately available for comment.
SOURCE: Telegraph
