Hungary to appeal Strasbourg court’s ruling on Bangladeshi asylum-seekers

Budapest (MTI) – Hungary will appeal a recent first-instance ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) fining the state for wrongly detaining and deporting two Bangladeshi asylum-seekers in 2015, the prime minister’s internal security advisor said on Saturday.

The ECtHR ruled on Tuesday that Hungary had violated the European Convention on Human Rights by detaining the two asylum-seekers in the Röszke transit zone near Hungary’s southern border. The court also said that authorities had later sent them back to Serbia, which the ECtHR said had put them under the risk of facing inhumane treatment in the Greek refugee reception centres.

The court ordered the Hungarian state to pay the petitioners 18,705 euros each in compensation and legal fees.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, György Bakondi said Hungarian authorities had assessed the asylum-seekers’ requests in line with the law. He said they had been sent back to Serbia because the authorities had determined that it was a safe third country.

He said the two Bangladeshi petitioners had been represented by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which he said “consistently acts as an organisation in support of migrants” and continually “participates in the attacks against Hungary’s migration policy”.