While the Council of Europe is about to make principles on refugees more severe, the Hungarian Parliament considers making local rules more liberal. In the meantime, the flow of migrants is shrinking.New EU directives will make it easier for member states to send refugees outside the EU. According to the new regulation, refugees whose applications were rejected, could not wait for the result of their appeal within the area of the EU.
“Real refugees could be forced back to their country of origin,” said Ruud Lubbers, commissioner of refugee affairs at the United Nations. However, they cannot be sent home safely for example to Ukraine or Serbia, as in these countries they cannot expect to receive humane treatment, Lubbers added.
The Hungarian Parliament also plans to amend the law on refugees. According to the draft, refugees’ applications could be passed quicker in the future. At present, applications are reviewed at the local offices of the Migration and Citizenship Bureau (BÁH), which is operated by the Interior Ministry. However, appeals have to be filed at the Budapest centre of BÁH.
The new system would simplify the procedure, as BÁH’s central Migration Department will become the only office that processes applications.According to the draft law, the group of people who can arrive through the practice of family reunion will broaden. Presently, if some people receive refugee status in Hungary, their children can follow them.
The amendment will also allow minors to receive the status first and be joined by their parents later.The draft law would offer amnesty to refugees who arrived to Hungary before 1st May, 2003.According to figures by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (MHB), 9,554 people applied for refugee status in Hungary in 2001.
The number fell to 6,412 in 2002 and 2,401 last year. In Q1 of 2004, the number of applicants was as low as 367. The significant drop in the number of refugees is partly due to the end of conflicts in former Yugoslavia and the military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, as most refugees have arrived from these two Muslim countries.
Furthermore, lately Slovakia has become a more attractive transit country for refugees than Hungary, said Attila Takács, lawyer at MHB, adding that refugees in Slovakia are accommodated close to the Western borders, where it is easier to approach Germany than from Hungary.
Source: HVG
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01.05.2004