The Right to Know – Comparative Report on Access to Classified Data in National Security Immigration Cases in Cyprus, Hungary and Poland

As part of The Right to Know project funded by the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM), the Comparative Report on Access to Classified Data in National Security Immigration Cases in Cyprus, Hungary and Poland is now available.

The report looks at the non-existent or very restrictive access to the classified data of the applicant and their representative in the three countries and as a consequence the inability of the applicant to effectively contest decisions by immigration authorities that interfere with their fundamental rights, such as the right to asylum, private and family life, right to liberty, etc. The report also examines the role of the judiciary reviewing immigration procedure decisions based on classified data and decisions on denial of access to classified data. 

The report concludes that the existing systems in all three countries are not compatible with relevant EU law and jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and violate the rights to defence and the right to an effective judicial remedy and concludes with several recommendations to Cyprus, Hungary and Poland and the European Commission.

This report was written by Gruša Matevžič (Hungarian Helsinki Committee) with substantive contributions from Jacek Białas (Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights), Nicoletta Charalambidou (Kisa) and Zita Barcza-Szabó (Hungarian Helsinki Committee) within the framework of The Right to Know project.

The report is available here