News

Drawing on exchanges between the HHC, various stakeholders of Frontex and its Executive Director, our new information note shows how the Agency turned a blind eye towards well documented systemic human rights violations at Hungary’s Schengen borders for more than four years. Moreover, the Agency remained in Hungary even after the CJEU ruled in December 2020 that extrajudicial push-backs taking place at the Hungarian-Serbian border breach EU law.

• 0
• Share

17 December 2020 (Budapest) – The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today announced its judgment, closing infringement proceedings initiated in December 2015.

• 0
• Share

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee together with the European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), the Dutch Council for Refugees (DCR), the AIRE Center, and the International Commission for Jurists (ICJ) submitted a third party intervention in the case of S.B. v. Croatia, app. no. 18810/19. The case concerns collective expulsion of migrants, including children, from Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and excessive use of force.

• 0
• Share

The HHC’s Family Reunification Activities and Challenges in the COVID-19 Era   Everyone’s right to family life and family unity regardless of nationality, ethnicity, or any other status has long been recognised in international human rights law, international refugee law and EU law. When people flee their countries due to wars, persecution, and serious human rights violations, they may become separated from their families.

• 0
• Share

Since, the European Commission has launched five asylum-related infringement procedures against Hungary, which were primarily based on the information and complaints submitted by the HHC and reflect the HHC’s position. You can find a list of all infringement procedures here.

• 0
• Share

Access to territory and the asylum procedure continues to be a serious challenge for those arriving to the Serbian-Hungarian border and in need of protection. However, it is not only this aspect of the Hungarian asylum procedure that seems to be out of synch with Hungary’s implementation of the European asylum acquis.

• 0
• Share

The HHC has recently received an increasing number of complaints from Hungarian family members whose spouses have been suddenly expelled and eventually detained by the NDGAP (National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing).

• 0
• Share

The new edition of the “Guide on how to establish a refugee law clinic” is now ready! The guide has been updated with the collaboration of experts from Eastern Europe and Latin America. It aims to provide support and practical ideas to universities, professors, lawyers, NGOs, students, and volunteers who are interested in establishing a “refugee law clinic”, anywhere in the world.

• 0
• Share

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on 14 May 2020 that Hungary’s practice of automatically placing the quasi-totality of asylum-seekers in closed land-border transit zones during the entire asylum procedure constitutes unlawful detention. As a reaction, the Hungarian government announced the introduction of a new asylum system.

• 0
• Share

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention cannot accept that an individual who either must agree to remain in the transit zone or lose the possibility of lodging an asylum application could be described as freely consenting to stay in the transit zone.

• 0
• Share