Fidesz calls on government to take tough stance at ECtHR hearing

The ruling Fidesz and Christian Democrat parties have called on the government to adopt a tough stance on border protection at Wednesday’s hearing before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case of two Bangladeshi asylum seekers who were detained and then deported from Hungary in 2015.

Speaking to public media, Fidesz spokesman Imre Puskás noted that the two asylum seekers were being represented in the case by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

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

The court ordered Hungary to pay the asylum seekers 10,000 euros each in compensation. In addition, the state was ordered to pay 7,500 euros in legal fees to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. Hungary appealed the decision.