Hungary’s defence committee approves tightening of asylum rules

Budapest (MTI) – Parliament’s defence committee has approved a draft amendment that would ban asylum-seekers from entering Hungary and so the EU until their case has been ruled on, Lajos Kósa, the head of the committee said on Wednesday.

Speaking after a meeting of the defence committee Kósa told a news conference that the amendment proposal was in full compliance with the EU’s Schengen and Dublin agreements, adding that if passed by parliament, it would close all loopholes in the current asylum system he said migrants had been exploiting.

Kósa said that migrants whose asylum applications are not ruled on in 28 days are redirected from the transit zones to open reception centres somewhere else in the country, from where they often illegally travel on to western Europe. He said dozens of asylum-seekers had abused the system in this way, refusing to cooperate with the authorities and providing them with false details.