Human rights committee wins in court against the Hungarian government
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Hungarian authorities unlawfully detained an Iraqi asylum seeker for three months in 2015, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee reported on Tuesday.
As reported, the 23-year-old dentist was forced to cross the Ukrainian-Hungarian border irregularly, Index reports. He then immediately reported that he would apply for asylum in Hungary. The procedure was started and at the same time the man was placed in asylum detention in Nyírbátor.
According to the reasoning of the domestic court, the identity of the border crosser could not be established due to the lack of valid papers. Furthermore, they said that he had no contacts in Hungary. The court initially ordered his detention for two months. It was then extended by one more month.
The Iraqi man, fed up with his situation, turned to the European Court of Human Rights with the help of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. He claimed that his detention was unnecessary and therefore a violation of his fundamental rights.
The Strasbourg court has now ruled that the Hungarian authorities arbitrarily violated the man’s personal freedom by detaining him for three months as a refugee. The Iraqi man was awarded just satisfaction of EUR 6,500 (roughly HUF 2.5 million at current exchange rates) for the damage he suffered.
Source: index.hu