STEMMING THE FLOW OF MIGRANTS
Western European states regard Hungary as a so-called "safe third country". Refugees are expected to seek asylum there. As a consequence, asylum seekers and other unwanted migrants who have entered a Western European state via Hungary are usually taken back by this country. However, information published by asylkoordination-österreich, an Austrian network of voluntary organisations in support of refugees and immigrants, suggests that asylum seekers and immigrants caught in Hungary on their way to Western European countries are unlikely to be granted effective protection there. Instead they face detention and deportation.
Hungary has concluded bilateral agreements on taking back migrants with all its neighbouring countries, as well as Switzerland and Poland. Corresponding agreements are currently being negotiated with Germany and France. The reason for this is that Hungary has become a prime transit country for migrants heading for Western and Northern Europe. According to official figures, 230,000 persons were turned away at the border and 7,000 deported in 1995. 4,500 person (90 per cent of them foreigners) were arrested at the border for "unlawful acts" - mostly illegal crossing of the border, use of false travel documents and illegal stay.
The "German model"
Senior Hungarian Border Protection officials stress that Hungarian legislation is neither more nor less repressive than legislation in Western European countries. "Hungarian border control practice is following the German model", they proudly told a representative of asylkoordination.
Hungarian legislation provides for different procedures for European and non-European asylum-seekers. Applications by Europeans are handled by the Office for Immigration alone, while the UNHCR is informed of all procedures concerning non-Europeans. In practice, however, this only happens when a refugee expressly applies for asylum in Hungary.
The deportation centre of Györ
The Border Protection is in charge of nine "reception centres". The largest, the deportation centre in the Western Hungarian town of Györ, can accommodate 500 persons.
Hungarian officials interviewed by asylkoordination emphasised that all foreigners stopped by police were informed of their rights and, in particular, of the possibility of filing an application for asylum in Hungary. Therefore, persons held in Györ could not be regarded as refugees, but merely foreigners who had committed offences. But detainees in the Györ deportation centre contest such allegations. Many complained to asylkoordination that they were given no information whatsoever and showed themselves totally unaware of their situation. Most of them seemed naively confident that the Hungarian authorities would provide them with travel documents permitting them to go to Germany. Others said they had actually been offered the chance of applying for asylum in Hungary but had turned down the opportunity - not because they lacked grounds, but because they wished to seek asylum in a Western European country and were unaware of the "third safe country" practice, actually barring them from seeking asylum elsewhere than in Hungary.
63 asylum applications in 1995
It is not only detainees' accounts that are in conflict with official declarations. According to the Hungarian authorities' own figures, from January to September 1995, only 63 persons applied for asylum in Hungary. Within the same period, 2,500 foreigners from 115 countries were held in the deportation centre of Györ alone.
Among the people detained in Györ prior to deportation were 18 refugees from Sri Lanka, who had miraculously survived a transport in a tractor-trailer. Nineteen other refugees had already died of suffocation when the trailer was discovered in the outskirts of Györ in July 1995. The 18 survivors were all sent back to Sri Lanka in late August, after the UNHCR found that they did not come under its mandate. The Hungarian Foreigners Police later confirmed that they had handed out the personal details of the refugees to the Sri Lankan embassies in Hungary and Austria from the very beginning, even before the decision to deport them was taken.
Emaciated and apathetic detainees
At a visit to the Györ deportation centre, Anny Knapp of asylkoordination found that the detainees were emaciated and apathetic. Nourishment in the camp is of poor quality and insufficient. Voluntary organisations are doing their best to supply the detainees with extra food, clothes, cigarettes and other basic items.
The detainees were living constantly cooped up in rooms with up to 29 bunk beds and were guarded by young army recruits.
The fenced outdoor area of the centre is only 1 metre large and reminded Ms Knapp of a kennel.
In theory, the inmates are allowed to leave the centre with a special permit card. In practice, however, only persons with sufficient cash are allowed to go out, provided they are not suspected of planning to abscond. On the day of Ms Knapp's visit, only 10 long-term detainees were on allowed leave.
It is well established, according to asylkoordination, that Austrian authorities frequently and successfully turn back rejected migrants to Hungary, even when they are unable to prove - as required under the agreement on the return of migrants - that the persons concerned actually entered Austria via Hungary. Hungarian authorities contest this and claim they are stricly conforming to their obligations and no more. Be that as it may, every day bus-loads of deportees leave the camp of Györ for the Hungarian border. Hungary is, indeed, steadily integrating itself into the European Fortress.
Source: `asylkoordination-aktuell', 4/95: "Ob es Flüchtlinge hier gibt..", article by Anny Knapp; contact: Asylkoordination-Österreich, Trattnerhof 2/14, A-1010 Vienna; Tel: +43/1 5321291, E-mail: asylkoordination@link-atu.comlink.de