Permanent stop for Dublin returns to Hungary

The Refugee Appeals Board has decided asylum seekers will no longer be transferred to Hungary

Last year 300 asylum seekers with finger prints in Hungary waited for one year, and finally had their cases opened in Denmark. However, this did not make Immigration Service change their practice for decisions on returns.

On March 14, The European Court of Human Rights made a verdict in the case Ilias and Ahmed vs Hungary, and the court found that the detention in a transit zone which they had been subjected to, was in breech of Article 5 concerning detention. The court also found that Hungarys use of Serbia as a safe third country was illegal, as it was based on a government decree and not an assessment.

Shortly after, Hungary passed a new “crisis law” after which all asylum seekers will be detained automatically in a transit zone. It is illegal to detain people without individual decisions, so this constitutes two system errors in the Hungarian procedure: systematic detention and the use of safe third country without assessment.

Besides, the reception conditions and the asylum procedure have been exposed to massive and constant criticism for years, also amounting to breeches of Article 3 about inhumane treatment.

On this background, The Refugee Appeals Board had to make a general decision to reject any return to Hungary in four cases on April 27th 2017.