Human Rights Violations Weaken Hungary's Rule Of Law - Council Of Europe

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published May 21, 2019 | 11:50 PM

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2019) Hungary must urgently halt human rights violations under its anti-immigrant policies as they undermine the rule of law and provoke xenophobia, the Council of Europe said in a statement on Tuesday.

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic visited Hungary in February to assess human rights issues related to refugee protection, independence of judiciary, civil society and gender equality.

"Human rights violations in Hungary have a negative effect on the whole protection system and the rule of law. They must be addressed as a matter of urgency," the statement reads citing Mijatovic's report on findings.

The commissioner is especially alarmed by systematic rejection of asylum applications and excessive use of force by the police during forceful deportations of refugees, saying the government's grounds for declaring "crisis situation due to mass immigration" do not correspond to the actual number of asylum seekers in Hungary and the European Union.

She urged the Hungarian authorities to suspend the anti-immigrant legislation and observe the right of all asylum seekers for protection under international law.

Hungary, along with the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, is among the Visegrad Four countries which rejected the open-doors policy of the European Union. In an attempt to curb the influx of refugees in 2015, Hungary built a razor wire-topped fence along the border with Serbia.

In 2017, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's administration adopted new laws requiring all asylum seekers to remain in so-called container camps in two mandatory transit zones along the border while waiting for the verdict on their cases. The legislation, touted Stop Soros law, also criminalized any attempts, including of non-governmental organizations, to provide aid to undocumented migrants in any form.

On July 19, the European Commission referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the European Union saying Budapest's anti-immigrant law did not comply with EU legislation.