The Hungarian legislation and practice are in conformity with EU and international law, Justice Minister Judit Varga stressed in a message posted on her Facebook account on Thursday in response to the opinion related to migrants of an advocate general of the European Court of Justice.

According to the European Court’s advocate general Priit Pikamae, in the Röszke transit zone the Hungarian State does not guarantee the rights of migrants, and keeps them in detention.

Ms. Varga said this is not true as, she added, migrants are able to leave the transit zone in the direction of Serbia at any time.

The Minister also drew attention to the fact that the advocate general’s opinion “is the direct opposite” of the judgement passed by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Ilias and Ahmed vs. Hungary promulgated in November 2019 in which the court established that staying in a designated place in a transit zone does not amount to detention.

The advocate general’s opinion is not binding on the European Court of Justice, the Minister added.

The Hungarian government’s position continues to remain clear: the Hungarian legislation and practice are in conformity with EU and international law. The government will protect the borders of Hungary and Europe also in the future, and will do everything it can to prevent the development of international migrant corridors, Ms. Varga stressed.

In the case in question, at the beginning of 2019 the asylum requests of two Iranian and two Afghan nationals arriving in Hungary via Serbia were rejected because the authorities took the view that they had arrived in Hungary via a transit country that was deemed safe. However, the Serbian State refused to take them back, and therefore the Hungarian authorities ordered their deportation back to Afghanistan and Iran, and designated the Röszke transit zone as temporary accommodation for them. The individuals concerned started legal action because in their view, the conditions of their accommodation amounted to unlawful “detention” under the EU Reception Conditions Directive.

The Szeged Administrative and Labour Court turned to the European Court of Justice in the case.

(Ministry of Justice / MTI)