Orban’s asylum policy breaks EU law: Adviser

Bloomberg

Hungary is breaking European Union law by thwarting asylum seekers, an adviser to the EU’s top court said, just weeks after its judges issued a separate ruling cutting at the heart of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s anti-immigrant policy.
Hungary “failed to fulfill its obligations” under EU law by not ensuring “effective access to the asylum procedure” and by unlawfully detaining applicants in transit zones, Advocate General Priit Pikamaee of the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg said in a non-binding opinion.
Such advisory opinions are usually, but not always, followed by the court.
EU judges last month ruled that Hungary can’t hold asylum seekers indefinitely in a transit area on Hungary’s border with Serbia, adding that applicants should also have the right to a judicial review.
The European Commission sued Hungary in December 2018 over the policy, arguing it violates guarantees provided to asylum seekers in EU law.
The Hungarian government has labeled Serbia, a non-EU nation, a “safe transit country” for refugees and therefore automatically rejects asylum seekers entering from there. It has also maintained that asylum seekers are free to leave to go back to Serbia and hence rejected arguments that refugees were in detention.