Hungary Approves Detention of Asylum Seekers in Guarded Camps
Also on Tuesday, the European Court of Justice defied the advice of one of its own advocates general by ruling
that European Union member states were not obliged to issue visas to people who planned to seek asylum in their countries, even if they were vulnerable to inhuman treatment or were threatened with torture.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary justified the measure on the grounds
that it would secure the European Union’s borders from migrants and act as a powerful deterrent against migration, which he called the "Trojan horse of terrorism." Mr. Orban is a vocal supporter of President Trump, who on Monday signed an executive order that bars people from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.
The advocate general, Paolo Mengozzi, said last month
that European Union countries should issue humanitarian visas if there were substantial grounds to conclude that "a refusal would place persons seeking international protection at risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment." Such advice is nonbinding but is usually followed.
By DAN BILEFSKYMARCH 7, 2017
LONDON — Europe’s simmering backlash against immigration came into sharp relief on Tuesday when the Hungarian Parliament approved the detention of asylum seekers in guarded
and enclosed camps on the country’s southern border, in what human rights advocates called a reckless breach of international law.
Nevertheless, the court ruled that European Union law did not require member states to grant humanitarian visas
but were "free to do so on the basis of their national law." The ruling came after a Syrian family of five from Aleppo had applied for visas at the Belgian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, in October 2016, with the aim of traveling to Belgium and applying for asylum there.
Erno Simon said that There is a global tendency to tighten the rules
and conditions for asylum seekers all over the world, and this is happening in Europe and the United States,