Each year hundreds of thousands leave their home due to wars, hunger, torture and persecution globally. In Europe, although often perceived as a safe region, asylum-seekers are often met by refusal, detention and expulsion.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee works towards providing effective assistance to those fleeing to Hungary.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled last December that the indiscriminate push-back of asylum-seekers to Serbia was in breach of EU law. However, the Government did not abandon the illegal practice, but instead responded with another violation: following the Polish model, it intends to use the Hungarian Constitutional Court as a means of evading the enforcement of a binding CJEU judgment.
The demonisation of migrants is the first step leading to the attacks against those showing solidarity with them.
Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, is being held accountable for illegally pushing back a Syrian family. The family was illegally deported to Turkey by Frontex in October 2016, shortly after arriving in Greece. It is the first time that Frontex through an action for damages is held responsible before the EU General Court for illegally deporting people and violating fundamental rights. Reports of similar pushbacks by Frontex have been piling up over the past years. The Syrian family is being represented by law firm Prakken D’Oliveira Human Rights Lawyers. Prakken D’Oliveira is supported by the Dutch Council for Refugees, BKB, Sea-Watch Legal Aid Fund and Jungle Minds.
A story about Hungary’s dysfunctional asylum system through the experience of HHC’s client, Hasib from Afghanistan.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee together with the Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights submitted a third party intervention in the case of Şener v. Poland, appl. no. 53371/18. The case concerns the expulsion of a … Read more
This Template presents the relevant EU law and the relevant Court of Justice of the European Union case law, as well as the pertinent provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and the applicable … Read more
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 … Read more
The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) are organising an expert legal workshop “Right to know – access to classified data in immigration cases”, to be held on-line, … Read more
‘God bless Hungary! I love Hungary and Hungarians. I have been waiting for this for two years and eight months. Thank you very much for accepting me and for granting me refugee status,’ said the sincerely shaken Abouzar Soltani on 18 August in the notes on his hearing when it was announced that he and his 12-year-old son Armin had finally received protection in Hungary. What follows is the story of what the Iranian clients of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee experienced, and the face that the Hungarian State shows to the persecuted.
Bringing Article 6 of ECHR into play
As part of the Protecting Rights at Borders initiative funded by the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM), the second quarterly report on unlawful push-backs carried out by authorities in Greece, North Macedonia, Serbia, … Read more
The European Court of Human Rights ruled this morning for the first time that push-backs carried out by Hungary under a domestic regulation are in breach of the prohibition of collective expulsions enshrined in Article … Read more
Our client wanting to seek asylum was pushed back to Serbia without any examination of his individual circumstances. 72 000 such cases occurred in the course of 5 years. The Pakistani man’s case was no … Read more
In December 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the domestic legalisation of push-backs violates EU law. In the seven months since the ruling, the Orbán Government has not changed … Read more
She 4 She and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee celebrated World Refugee Day together on Sunday 20th June 2021. We had a panel discussion in Mandák-ház about refugee women’s access to universities. Watch the conversation on video if you missed the event!
This project will improve the integration outcomes and well-being of refugees in Hungary through two workstreams: We will help refugee families to reunite in Hungary. The HHC is the only organisation in Hungary that provides … Read more
As part of the Protecting Rights at Borders initiative funded by the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM), the first quarterly report on unlawful push-backs carried out by authorities in Greece, North Macedonia, Serbia, … Read more
Our intervention at the European Parliament’s LIBE Committee Working Group on Frontex Scrutiny on push-backs and the Agency’s human rights record in Hungary.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) submitted a third party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights on 8 April 2021 in Mahamud v. the Netherlands, App. no. 64534/19 that concerns a family reunification of … Read more
Our new information update focuses on how Hungarian asylum provisions on exclusion from international protection are still not compliant with EU law, despite CJEU Ahmed judgement (C‑369/17). In summary, the infringement of EU law centers … Read more