Hungary will stop immigrants with brutal laws in a few days
According to index.hu, authorities will have a totally different attitude towards refugees from next Tuesday. Those who enter illegally, will be caught, prisoned and quickly expelled from the country. Those who submit an asylum application will not be able to enter Hungary and will be sent back to Serbia. The government prepares for crowd control scenes too, but according to Orbán’s plans, that is the only way that there will be relatively calm for Christmas.
Viktor Orbán and János Lázár noted several times in the days that there will be a new era in the treatment of refugee situation from September 15. The Prime Minister and his Minister hinted that the amendments of the asylum legislative package approved by the Parliament will come into force this time.
It is not about simple technical changes. The authorities, the police, the immigration office, the court get assets, liabilities which provide a totally different managing of the refugees arriving at the border. For example, the police will give very different responses to the outbursts seen in Röszke on Monday and Tuesday.
Refugees will be expelled within 3 hours
According to the government sources of index.hu, the creation of the so-called transit zones will be a quite important change. U-shaped areas will be established, which will be open to the Serbian border and closed towards Hungary.
Because of these zones, the border strip will be expanded to 60 meters, and it is an important new feature that the transit zone does not constitute the area of Hungary.
It will be a non-state area, such as the Ferihegy Airport transit. That is, the refugees will connect with the Hungarian authorities in such a way that they do not enter Hungary, namely the EU.
The immigrants can submit their asylum applications in the transit zones, there is the only way to legally get into the EU. Minister of Foreign Economic and Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó earlier said that three of those transit zones would be constructed at the Serbian border. By law, the submitted asylum application must be dealt with in 8 days. (According to the European rules, a refugee can freely move about in the EU during this time). Only those can enter Hungary who receive refugee status.
But the government has a tricky answer to this.
According to a cabinet member, it would be prescribed for the authorities not to avoid the decision: they should decide on the application in 2-3 hours. These decision will be almost invariably dismissive, since based on a legal amendment in the summer too, the government declared Serbia a safe country.
Thus, it seems the refugees arriving at the Serbian borders will not have other choice but to turn back to Serbia from the Hungarian transit zone.
Illegal border crossers will be expelled
Of course, they can also choose to try to illegally enter the country as thousands of people already do it. From September 15, however, it is not an offense, but – according to the amended Criminal Code – a crime. Then the police will not escort them to a registration point or place them on a bus, but take them into custody and send to court. The judges must decide quickly. The result will be prison and/or expulsion, according to the Criminal Code.
Viktor Orban urges the construction of the fence and told off Minister of Defense Csaba Hende because only the fence can make sure that the mass of refugees go to the transit zone and do not walk through the green border. So it is all the same a refugee wants to go Hungary legally or illegally, he/she almost certainly will be expelled.
But what if they are trying to break through en masse?
It may well be, of course, the outraged refugees rebel and try to break through collectively. A cabinet member said the government expects it and is prepared for these attempts.
Therefore, they ensured that the army can be deployed at the border. (According to index.hu, the Parliament will vote on the necessary 2/3-majority legal amendments on September 21). It is envisaged that the police will protect the border, but behind every policemen, there will also be 2-3 soldiers as well: nothing will prohibit it from then on.
There will be no fire order for the policemen and the soldiers, the policemen can use their already existing entitlements: water cannon, tear gas, truncheons. According to index.hu, the cabinet expects such scenes in the coming weeks.
Where does this strict action lead?
The government estimates that there will be two consequences of the strict action:
Human traffickers and refugees realize that it is hard to get to the EU through Hungary: they should go elsewhere.
Serbia will also have a different attitude and will not let the refugees in its territory easily, creating even passages for them. After all, the tens of thousands jammed at the Hungarian border will cause Serbia a serious problem.
According to the government plans, the great influx of immigrants will come to an end at the Serbian-Hungarian border for Christmas. However, it is naïve to think the refugees and human traffickers will turn back and will not look for other ways. The government scenario thinks it is imaginable they will bypass towards Croatia (Romania is also possible, but less likely, as it would mean a huge detour to Germany).
According to the government’s calculation, the rivers at the Croatian-Hungarian border, Drava and Mura will deter the refugees and human traffickers to go to Hungary, so it remains Slovenia, which is no longer the concern of the Hungarian government. If the immigrants wanted to come en masse from Romania or Croatia, the cabinet does not rule out the fence construction there, too. Fidesz politicians also hinted it, but there is no decision about it yet.
The new era means that the government will minimize the likelihood that hundreds of immigrants achieve M1 or even M5 highway.
According to a cabinet member, you have to prepare for “hard scenes” at the Serbian border from next Tuesday.
based on the article of index.hu
translated by BA
Photo: MTI
Source: http://index.hu/