Hungary to close ts southern border zones for asylum-seekers

Hungary’s government said on May 21 that it is shutting down transit zones on its sourn border with Serbia where asylum-seekers are being kept while ir asylum requests are decided. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff said that, as a result, some 280 asylum-seekers will be moved on May 21 to reception centers in country.

Gergely Gulyas also said that, in future, those seeking to apply for asylum in Hungary will have to present ir claims at Hungarian diplomatic missions. government decision comes after European Union’s top court last week ruled that holding asylum-seekers in Hungary’s transit zones amounted to “detention” and said it was allowed for a maximum period of four weeks.

Hungary built fences protected by razor wire on its sourn borders with Serbia and Croatia and later a pair of transit zones on its border with Serbia in wake of 2015 migrant crisis, when some 400,000 people passed through Hungary on ir way to Western Europe. measures were part of Orban's increasingly strict anti-immigration policies and extreme minimization of Hungary's asylum system.

transit zones built from shipping containers were a frequent target for widespre criticism from domestic and international rights groups.y objected, for example, to small number of asylum-seekers allowed to file claims, prison-like conditions faced by those kept in transit zones — including families with small children — and Hungary’s frequent decision t to provide food to ults whose initial asylum claims were rejected but who remained in transit zones while ir appeals were heard.

(Im credit: Representative Im)