UN human rights experts suspend Hungary visit

UN human rights experts suspend Hungary visit after access denied

GENEVA (15 November 2018) - UN human rights experts have taken the unprecedented step of suspending an official visit to Hungary after they were denied access to the Röszke and Tompa “transit zones” at the border with Serbia where migrants and asylum seekers, including children, are deprived of their liberty.

“There can be no doubt that holding migrants in these ‘transit zones’ constitutes deprivation of liberty in accordance with international law,” said Elina Steinerte and Sètondji Roland Adjovi, members of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. “We have received a number of credible reports concerning the lack of safeguards against arbitrary detention in these facilities which called for a visit by the Working Group.”

Hungary had invited the delegation to conduct the visit from 12 to 16 November 2018 in order to follow up on its 2013 recommendations*.

Under the terms of reference for visits by independent experts appointed by the UN’s Human Rights Council, governments are required to guarantee freedom of inquiry particularly as regards to “confidential and unsupervised contacts with persons deprived of their liberty”. The experts said they regretted that the Hungarian authorities have not respected those undertakings and as a result the Working Group was prevented from fulfilling its mandate.

“Unimpeded access to all places of deprivation of liberty including these transit zones must be guaranteed to independent international, regional and national organisations,” the experts said. “This is vital for the protection of the human rights in a country governed by rule of law.”

The Working Group said it hoped that the Government of Hungary would enter into a constructive dialogue to enable the delegates resume their visit in the near future and to work together to establish effective safeguards against the risk of arbitrary deprivation of liberty in Hungary.

ENDS

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