According to the Ministry of Justice’s Parliamentary State Secretary, the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Bangladeshi immigrants Ilias and Ahmed is an attack on the Schengen Agreement.

Speaking on Hungarian M1 television’s Thursday morning current affairs program, Pál Völner recalled that in March the European Court of Human Rights delivered a ruling against Hungary in the case of two refugees from Bangladesh, claiming that they were held in detention in the transit zone at Röszke, which is otherwise open in the direction of Serbia.

“Accordingly, Hungary is appealing the ruling at the Grand Chamber, which deals with priority cases that affect multiple member states”, the State Secretary said.

Mr. Völner declared that in his opinion the case affects ever member state of the European Union in view of the fact that the decision of the European Court of Human Rights is an attack on the Schengen Agreement. “If people were allowed to flow into the Schengen Zone in an uncontrolled manner it would invalidate the system”, he said.

Speaking on Kossuth Radio’s “180 minutes” program, the State Secretary said with regard to the fact that the Court ruling suggests that Serbia is not a safe third country: Hungary believes Serbia is safe, but this is a rebuttable presumption. “If it were proven that Serbia is dangerous, then migrants could not be sent back there, but no decision of this kind has been made thus far.

Otherwise, Serbia is an associate member of the European Union and is in the process of conducting accession negotiations; if it were not a safe country this relationship would not exist”, he pointed out.

(MTI)