Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Hungarian government has previously rejected UN claims that it uses excessive force to expel migrants

Hungary's parliament has approved the automatic detention of all asylum seekers in container camps at the country's borders, prompting "deep concern" from the UN Refugee Agency.

The legislation was approved by a large majority of lawmakers.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said it was a response to recent terror attacks in Europe carried out by migrants.

Speaking at a swearing-in ceremony for 450 new border police, he said Hungary was "under siege".

"The migration flow has only slowed, but it is not over," Mr Orban said. "We have gained time to strengthen our lines of defence."

He called immigration "the Trojan horse of terrorism", adding: "If the world sees that we can defend our borders... then no one will try to come to Hungary illegally".

The prime minister said the arrival of Muslim migrants endangers Europe's Christian culture and identity.

"Those readying for the journey do not want to live according to our ways and culture, but according to their own - only with a European quality of life," he said in Budapest.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has fought a long battle to keep out migrants

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Hungarian government has rejected accusations it used excessive force to expel migrants

Under the new measures, all asylum seekers entering Hungary - and those currently in the country - will be confined in camps built from shipping containers while their asylum applications are processed.

Appeals against rejected applications will be fast-tracked, and those denied entry may have to cover their own detention costs.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International have raised grave concerns about the crackdown, calling it "xenophobic, fear-mongering propaganda".

"There are hardly 400 asylum seekers in the country," said a statement issued by seven groups, including Amnesty International Hungary, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, and MigSzol, the Migrant Solidarity Group of Hungary.

Gauri Van Gulik, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for Europe, said the move was "beyond the pale".

"These measures will even be applied to children, a flagrant violation of international and European law," she said.

"Dumping all refugees and migrants into containers isn't a refugee policy - it's avoiding one."

The UN Refugee Agency said it was "deeply concerned" about the detention of asylum seekers.

"This new law ... will have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered," it said in a statement.

Hungary's nationalist prime minister has maintained a hardline stance on migration for some years.

In 2015, when the country became a transit state for asylum seekers en route to Germany and other EU nations, he responded by building razor wire fences on the borders with Serbia and Croatia.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Hungary already has razor wire fences on the borders with Serbia and Croatia

Some 400,000 migrants passed through Hungary that year before the fences were in place.

A second, 150km (93 mile) fence on the Serbian border is scheduled for completion in May, equipped with night cameras and heat and movement sensors.

In October last year, Hungary held a referendum on whether to accept mandatory EU quotas for relocating migrants.

The EU had asked it to accept 1,294 refugees.

The referendum was ultimately invalid, as while 98% of those who took part wanted to reject the EU plan, the turnout fell short of the required 50% threshold.

In 2016, Hungary registered 29,432 asylum claims and accepted just 425 asylum seekers.

By contrast, Germany took in 280,000 in 2016.</s>Hungary's parliament has overwhelmingly approved the automatic detention of all asylum seekers in container camps at the borders, despite criticism from rights groups.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on March 7 that the legislation, passed 138-6 with 22 abstentions, is in response to recent terror attacks in Europe.

It reinstates Hungary's practice of detaining asylum applicants, which it suspended in 2013 under pressure from Brussels, the UN refugee agency, and the European Court of Human Rights.

According to the new measure, all asylum seekers entering Hungary, and those already in the country, will be detained or moved to the container camps.

While in camps, they will not be allowed to move around Hungary or leave the country during the processing of their applications, unless they are crossing the border back into Serbia.

The new border camps will comprise converted shipping containers built onto existing "transit zones" erected in 2015 at the southern border with Serbia, government officials say.

Orban, speaking at a swearing-in ceremony for a new group of border guards known locally as "border hunters," said Hungary is "under siege."

Hungary could only count on itself for protection, he said.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, voiced deep concern after the adoption of the measure.

"This new law violates Hungary’s obligations under international and EU laws, and will have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered," UNHCR said in a statement issued in Geneva.

"Under international and EU laws, the detention of refugees and asylum seekers can only be justified on a limited number of grounds, and only where it is necessary, reasonable and proportionate," the statement added.

Rights group Amnesty International said last month that the new rules "disregard EU guiding principles that it is forbidden to detain someone on the basis that they have claimed asylum."

"Elderly, sick people as well as families with children may also be detained [in the containers]," the rights group said.

The new measure is the latest in a series of a tough anti-immigration steps by Orban -- who has called immigration "poison."

Hungary built militarized razor wire fences on its borders with Serbia and Croatia in 2015, and handed thousands of migrants expulsion orders for "illegal border-crossing" and even jailed some.

It has also gradually been closing down its network of refugee camps, while allowing only a trickle of asylum seekers into the existing transit zones.

According to the government, 1,004 people have applied for asylum in Hungary so far this year.

The Interior Ministry on March 6 defended police against accusations of brutality against migrants, made in a newspaper article by medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and in an article in Britain's Independent website.

The Independent quoted migrants as saying that Hungarian border guards are "taking selfies with beaten migrants." (http://ind.pn/2mo7GyV)

The Interior Ministry "repeatedly and categorically rejects the unverified allegations," said a ministry statement.

Written by Eugen Tomiuc with reporting by AFP, dpa, and The Independent</s>Hungary's parliament on Tuesday approved the automatic detention of all asylum-seekers in container camps at the country's southern borders, brushing off concerns from rights groups.

The legislation, approved by a large majority of lawmakers, is in response to recent terror attacks in Europe carried out by migrants, according to hardline Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

All asylum-seekers entering Hungary as well as those currently in the country will be detained or moved to the container camps.

There they will be prevented from moving around Hungary or leaving the country while their applications are processed, unless they are going back over the border to Serbia.

"In the future, illegal immigrants must wait for the verdict on their asylum case in designated transit zones at the border," read Tuesday's bill, published on the Hungarian parliament's website.

It reinstates Hungary's practice of detaining asylum applicants, which it suspended in 2013 under pressure from Brussels, the UN refugee agency and the European Court of Human Rights.

Amnesty International said in a statement last month that the new rules "disregard EU guiding principles that it is forbidden to detain someone on the basis that they have claimed asylum".

"Elderly, sick people as well as families with children may also be detained (in the containers)," the rights group said.

The bill is the latest element of a tough anti-immigration stance by Orban -- who has called immigration "poison" -- which has long been slammed by rights groups as inhumane.

As well as building militarised razor wire fences on its borders with Serbia and Croatia in 2015, Hungary has handed thousands of migrants expulsion orders for "illegal border-crossing" and even jailed some.

It has also gradually been closing down its network of refugee camps, while allowing only a trickle of asylum-seekers into the existing transit zones.

According to the government, 1,004 people have applied for asylum in Hungary so far this year.

According to government officials, the new border camps will comprise converted shipping containers built onto existing "transit zones" erected in 2015 at the southern border with Serbia.

The government says the new legislation will protect both Hungarian and EU citizens.

It says migrants have been abusing the previous rules and leaving Hungary before a verdict is reached, exposing the bloc to the risk of terror attacks.

"Any legal regulation that facilitates terror acts must be changed in the interests of our own self-defence," Orban said in January.

The 53-year-old Orban, a strong admirer of US President Donald Trump, has long taken a hard line on immigration.

He has said that a large influx of Muslim migrants into Europe poses a security risk and endangers the continent's Christian culture and identity.

Budapest has refused to take part in an EU scheme to share around the EU the hundreds of thousands of migrants who entered the bloc in recent years.

Another change in law last year enabled police to physically push back to Serbia anyone caught in Hungarian territory within eight kilometres (five miles) of the border.

The interior ministry was forced Monday to defend police against accusations of brutality against migrants, made in a newspaper article by medical aid organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

The ministry "repeatedly and categorically rejects the unverified allegations," said a statement.</s>Hungary's parliament has approved a new law calling for all asylum seekers to be detained in camps along the country's southern border while their applications are being processed.

Under the measure passed Tuesday, migrants will be kept in converted shipping containers, and will not be allowed to leave unless they choose to go into Serbia.

The U.N. refugee agency says it is deeply concerned about the new law, saying international and EU laws state asylum seekers can only be detained when doing so is "necessary, reasonable and proportionate."

Hungary has resisted efforts for EU members to take in a share of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have arrived in the past few years. The government says its position is necessary to protect national security and European culture and identity.

UNHCR spokesperson Cecile Pouilly says the new law "will have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered."</s>UN refugee agency says automatic detention measure violates the country’s obligations under international law.

Hungary's parliament has approved the automatic detention of all asylum seekers in container camps at the country's southern borders, despite a fierce backlash from human rights groups.

Under the new legislation, asylum seekers entering Hungary and those already in the country will be detained or moved to the container camps.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the measure was needed as a response to "terror" attacks in Europe, citing the November 2015 attacks in Paris.

The move reinstates Hungary's practice of detaining asylum applicants, which it suspended in 2013 under pressure from human rights groups.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, immediately criticised the measure.

"This new law violates Hungary's obligations under international and EU laws, and will have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered," the UNHCR said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Orban ordered the reinforcement of fences on the country's southern border.

Work began last week on a second border fence and the right-wing government extended a state of emergency that gave authorities additional powers to secure the borders. Hungary had previously built a fence on its borders with Serbia and Croatia in September 2015.

In October last year, the majority of Hungarians voted against an EU referendum aimed at sharing 160,000 refugees around the 28-member bloc through mandatory quotas.

It has since not accepted any asylum seekers allocated under the scheme.

Hungary granted asylum, or some form of protection, to 425 people out of 29,432 applications in 2016.</s>Hungary’s parliament has approved the automatic detention of all asylum seekers in container camps on the southern borders, dismissing concerns from human rights groups.

The legislation, approved by a large majority of politicians, was created in response to recent terrorist attacks in Europe carried out by migrants, the hardline prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said.

All asylum seekers entering Hungary, as well as those already in the country, would be detained or moved to the container camps. They would not be able to move around Hungary or leave the country while their applications were processed.

“In the future, illegal immigrants must wait for the verdict on their asylum case in designated transit zones at the border,” said the bill, published on the parliament website.

It reinstated Hungary’s practice of detaining asylum applicants, which it suspended in 2013 under pressure from the European Union, the UN refugee agency and the European court of human rights.

Amnesty International said last month that the new rules “disregard EU guiding principles that it is forbidden to detain someone on the basis that they have claimed asylum”.</s>BUDAPEST - Hungary’s parliament approved Tuesday the systematic detention of all asylum-seekers in container camps, in a move that Prime Minister Viktor Orban said will make all of Europe safer from terror attacks.

Calling immigration the “Trojan Horse of terrorism”, Orban said: “If the world sees that we can defend our borders... then no one will try to come to Hungary illegally.”

The legislation will see asylum-seekers entering Hungary as well as those currently in the country confined in camps at Hungary’s southern borders while their applications are processed.

Anyone who passed through a “safe third country”, including the main entry point Serbia, will be refused. Appeals against rejections will be fast-tracked in three days. Migrants whose applications are unsuccessful may also have to cover the costs of their own detention. Unaccompanied minors under 14 will be placed in care as before. EU member Hungary previously systematically detained all asylum applicants but suspended the practice in 2013 under pressure from Brussels, the UN refugee agency and the European Court of Human Rights.

The UNHCR said Tuesday that the new legislation “will have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered.”

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee said it was the “last stepping stone in completely disregarding (Hungary’s) asylum obligations under EU and international law and trampling the rights of asylum seekers.”

“We are urging the EU to step up and show Hungary that such illegal and deeply inhumane measures have consequences,” Amnesty International said.

The Tunisian suspect in the December 19 truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead was an asylum-seeker whose application had been refused. But most other recent attacks in Europe were carried out by people who were born and/or grew up in Europe. Some of those in the 2015 Paris attacks had however posed as refugees. Hungary’s government says the new camps will comprise converted shipping containers built onto existing “transit zones” erected in 2015 at the southern border with Serbia.

EU member Hungary’s border is also an external frontier of Europe’s border-free Schengen zone.

As well as building militarised razor wire fences on its borders with Serbia and Croatia in 2015, Hungary has handed thousands of migrants expulsion orders for “illegal border-crossing” and even jailed some.

It has also gradually been closing down its network of refugee camps, while allowing only a trickle of asylum-seekers into the existing transit zones. Hungarian prisoners are also building a second “smart fence” complete with night cameras and heat and movement sensors. At the height of Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, over 400,000 people, many fleeing the Syrian civil war, passed through Hungary on their way to western Europe.

This has since slowed dramatically, with 1,004 people applying for asylum in Hungary this year and 105 people crossing the border illegally, according to the government. But Orban said Tuesday that this was just a temporary lull.

“The pressure on the border will not end in coming years, as there are still millions of people preparing to step out on the road in hope of a better life,” he said.

The 53-year-old Orban, a strong admirer of US President Donald Trump, has long taken a hard line on immigration. He has said that a large influx of Muslim migrants into Europe poses a security risk and endangers the continent’s Christian culture and identity.

Budapest has refused to take part in an EU scheme to share around the EU the hundreds of thousands of migrants who entered the bloc in recent years.

“Those readying for the journey do not want to live according to our ways and culture but according to their own - only with a European quality of life,” Orban said Tuesday.</s>Asylum seekers in Hungary, which hundreds of thousands entered in 2015 in the hope of reaching western Europe, can at present be held for up to four weeks if they are apprehended within five miles of the border, but the new rules remove the time limit and will apply countrywide. Unaccompanied minors below the age of 14 will be put in the care of the country’s child protection services.

The spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), Cécile Pouilly, denounced the measure, saying it violated Hungary's obligations with respect to international rights and the laws of the European Union.

According to her, international and EU laws dictate that the detention of refugees and asylum seekers only occur when strictly necessary and that children should never be detained.

"This new law will have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered," she said.

The law will only be in force while the country is in an alert state due to mass migration, a status that was enforced in late 2015 and is expected to last until Sept. 2017.

Hungary has recently approved a series of measures to curb migration, including building a second fence on the border with Serbia, though NGOs estimate that there are only around 400 asylum-seekers in the country.</s>The Hungarian parliament has approved a controversial law enabling all asylum seekers in the country to be detained and forced back into neighbouring Serbia.

Viktor Orban, the prime minister, claimed migrants were keeping his country “under siege” and must be defended against.

Speaking at a swearing-in ceremony for a group of specialist guards known as “border hunters”, he said that Hungary could only count on itself for protection.

Orban, a leader of the right-wing populist Fidesz party and a supporter of Donald Trump, has already ordered the reinforcement of fences along Hungary’s southern border and claimed refugees are a threat to Europe’s Christian identity and culture.

The new legislation will see refugees locked in border camps made of shipping containers while their cases are decided.

Applications will be declared inadmissible for anyone who entered the Hungary from Serbia or a “safe third country”, while the appeal period will be cut to just three days and migrants may have to cover the costs of their own imprisonment.

The new bill also allows authorities to detain all adult asylum seekers in its territory and summarily return those refused to the Serbian border as part of “crisis” measures in place until September.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it was “deeply concerned” by the measure, which combines with other policies to make it “nearly impossible for asylum-seekers to enter the country, apply for asylum and receive international protection”.

“This new law violates Hungary’s obligations under international and EU laws, and will have a terrible physical and psychological impact on women, children and men who have already greatly suffered,” spokesperson Cécile Pouilly told reporters in Geneva.

“Under international and EU laws, the detention of refugees and asylum-seekers can only be justified on a limited number of grounds, and only where it is necessary, reasonable and proportionate…children should never be detained under any conditions.”

Humanitarian organisations had appealed to the European Commission to intervene to block the draft bill, saying it was “at odds with EU, human rights and refugee law” in a letter last month.

The law “On the amendment of certain acts related to increasing the strictness of procedures carried out in the areas of border management,” allows adult asylum seekers including families with children and unaccompanied minors above the age of 14 to be jailed.

It reinstates Hungary’s previous practice of detaining asylum applicants, which was suspended in 2013 under pressure from the European Union, the UNHCR and the European Court of Human Rights.

The provision to allow authorities to round up migrants and forcibly return them over the Serbian border expands a previous law permitting the push-backs within five miles of the boundary.

“The European Commission should not stand by while Hungary makes a mockery of the right to seek asylum,” said Benjamin Ward, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch.

“Using transit zones as detention centres and forcing asylum seekers who are already inside Hungary back to the Serbian side of the razor-wire fence is abusive, pointless, and cruel.”

The law was approved amid continuing reports of abuse by border police, with migrants claiming to have been beaten, filmed and photographed in “selfies” with officers.

An estimated 7,000 asylum seekers are currently stranded in dire humanitarian conditions in Serbia while waiting to cross, with only a handful allowed through two designated transit zones a day.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees have crossed into Hungary on their way from the shores of Greece to western Europe but the right-wing government has spared no expense to stop their journeys.

The crackdown is intensifying despite a dramatic fall in the number of refugees journeying to Hungary after the EU-Turkey deal was implemented a year ago to prevent boat crossings to Greece.

Thousands of guards have been deployed to patrol the country’s 100-mile southern border with Serbia, where soldiers and prison inmates are expanding a barbed wire fence into an electrified 13ft barrier.

A spokesperson for the European Commission told The Independent: “We will be analysing the bill when we have been notified by Hungarian authorities but we do not have any further comment to make at this time.”</s>Hungary is facing fierce criticism over new rules to detain all asylum seekers in closed border camps built of shipping containers, and plans to tighten state control over civil society groups that often challenge prime minister Viktor Orban.

Legislation passed by Hungary’s parliament this week will confine all refugees and migrants to camps for the entire duration of the asylum process, and empowers police to detain illegal migrants caught anywhere in Hungary and expel them to neighbouring Serbia without any legal recourse. Only unaccompanied children younger than 14 years of age will be exempt.

The measures tighten further a Hungarian asylum regime that human rights defenders say breaches the country’s international obligations to protect people fleeing war and persecution.

The new system will also deter the EU from allowing the return of asylum seekers to Hungary under the bloc’s so-called Dublin regulation - an outcome Mr Orban may welcome, having portrayed Europe’s mostly Muslim migrants and refugees as a danger to its security and identity.

Nils Muznieks, the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, said on Wednesday that the measures were “likely to exacerbate the already highly problematic situation of asylum seekers in Hungary.

“Under the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, detention for the purpose of denying entry to a territory or for removal must be a measure of last resort . . . Automatically depriving all asylum seekers of their liberty would be in clear violation of Hungary’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.”

Gauri Van Gulik, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Europe, said: “Plans to automatically detain some of the world’s most vulnerable people in shipping containers behind razor wire fences, sometimes for months on end, are beyond the pale.

“We are urging the EU to step up and show Hungary that such illegal and deeply inhumane measures have consequences.”

During the height of Europe’s refugee crisis in 2015, Hungary built fences on its southern borders to block people moving along the “Balkan route” to western Europe.

Mr Orban’s government is now building a second layer of fencing, and he has dismissed criticism of its asylum policy as “dreamy human rights gibberish”. Officials have also rejected numerous reports of Hungarian police mistreating refugees and migrants that they detain.

At a swearing-in ceremony for border police this week, Mr Orban said Hungary was still “under siege” and that the crisis would persist “until people everywhere realise that migration is the Trojan horse of terrorism”.

Mr Orban’s populist Fidesz party is also expected to introduce a bill to parliament this month that would sharply increase financial scrutiny of foreign-funded NGOs in Hungary.

The main target of the bill appears to be liberal groups financed by Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros, some of which have worked since the 1990s to strengthen democracy, transparency and the rule of law in Hungary. They now often criticise Mr Orban over everything from asylum policy to widespread corruption.

Mr Orban himself predicted that 2017 “would be about squeezing out the forces symbolised” by Mr Soros. “One can feel it coming,” he said, “that each country will trace the source of this money, the connections [between NGOs] and intelligence communities, and which NGOs represent which interests.”

Goran Buldioski, director of Mr Soros’s Open Society Initiative for Europe, said Hungarian NGOs that criticise Mr Orban now face “a government PR campaign” to tarnish their reputation.

“We often hear comparisons with Russia, but Russia is not an EU member and doesn’t espouse democratic values as part of its society,” Mr Buldioski told The Irish Times.

“It’s very important that an EU member does not go down that same path.”
The National Assembly of Hungary approves the automatic detention of all asylum seekers who enter the country.