Speaking to public media, Fidesz spokesman Imre Puskás noted that the two asylum seekers were being represented in the case by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.

Last March, the ECtHR ruled that Hungary had violated the European Convention on Human Rights by detaining the asylum seekers in the Röszke transit zone near Hungary’s southern border. The court also said that the authorities later sent them back to Serbia, which the ECtHR said had put them under the risk of inhumane treatment in the Greek refugee reception centres.

The court ordered Hungary to pay the asylum seekers 10,000 euros each in compensation. In addition, the state was ordered to pay 7,500 euros in legal fees to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. Hungary appealed the decision.

Puskás said the reason why “the Hungarian Helsinki Committee financed by [US billionaire George] Soros” had sued Hungary over its transit zones was because it wanted to weaken the protection of the country’s borders and force it to take in migrants. “They’re doing this in the interest of Soros,” he insisted.

Photo: echr.coe.int