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Hungary denying food to asylum seekers, say human rights groups
Source: The Guardian
Hungary denying food to asylum seekers, say human rights groups
Some adults whose claims were rejected went without food for up to five days, claim activists
Shaun Walker in Budapest
Fri 26 Apr 2019 09.13 BST Last modified on Fri 26 Apr 2019 11.08 BST
Hungarian authorities are systematically denying food to failed asylum seekers detained in the country’s border transit zones, say rights activists.
The policy, whereby adults whose asylum claims have been rejected are denied food, was described as “an unprecedented human rights violation in 21st-century Europe” by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organisation working to offer legal support to those in the transit zones.
It may amount to “inhuman treatment and even to torture” under international human rights law, said the organisation in a statement released this week. It documented eight cases involving 13 people this year when the Hungarian authorities had begun providing food to people only after the European court of human rights had intervened. Some went without food for up to five days before the rulings were granted.
Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has built his political programme around being tough on migration and demonising refugees and migrants. In 2015, he ordered a fence built along the country’s southern border with Serbia and regularly rails against the danger of migration in his speeches. A tax has been imposed on NGOs who work on migration-related issues.
-snip-
Some adults whose claims were rejected went without food for up to five days, claim activists
Shaun Walker in Budapest
Fri 26 Apr 2019 09.13 BST Last modified on Fri 26 Apr 2019 11.08 BST
Hungarian authorities are systematically denying food to failed asylum seekers detained in the country’s border transit zones, say rights activists.
The policy, whereby adults whose asylum claims have been rejected are denied food, was described as “an unprecedented human rights violation in 21st-century Europe” by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organisation working to offer legal support to those in the transit zones.
It may amount to “inhuman treatment and even to torture” under international human rights law, said the organisation in a statement released this week. It documented eight cases involving 13 people this year when the Hungarian authorities had begun providing food to people only after the European court of human rights had intervened. Some went without food for up to five days before the rulings were granted.
Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has built his political programme around being tough on migration and demonising refugees and migrants. In 2015, he ordered a fence built along the country’s southern border with Serbia and regularly rails against the danger of migration in his speeches. A tax has been imposed on NGOs who work on migration-related issues.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/26/hungary-denying-food-to-asylum-seekers-say-human-rights-groups