Hungary Denies Food to Asylum Seekers

Viktor Orbán. Photo by European People's Party.

Hungary continues to run afoul of the European Union agreement on asylum seekers. The latest move involves denying food for adults who are appealing their asylum rejections.

In addition to the government refusing to provide food, the asylum seekers are blocked from purchasing their own food, and nonprofit organizations are blocked from providing assistance as well. This is seen as a push-back against George Soros and his Open Society Foundation, which Prime Minister Viktor Orban sees as pushing for the end of Hungarian sovereignty. In fact, the law is called the “Stop Soros Legislative Package.” Soros has since moved his headquarters to Berlin.

Previously Orban, who ran on a populist anti-immigration platform, had installed an electrified razor wire fence on the border between Hungary and Serbia, and limited the number of asylum seekers to two per day.

Those who do make it across the Serbian/Hungarian border are kept in transit zones during their hearings and appeals process. There they are housed in metal shipping containers. Asylum seekers are welcome to leave at any time and return to Serbia, which Hungary considers a “safe third country.”

If the asylum case is rejected, if the person appeals, they will be held in that transit zone and subject to “alien policing procedures“. Under those procedures, the Hungarian government says it has no obligation to feed the adults.

Cases were brought to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of two Afghan families and a pair of Syrian brothers. The children of one of the Afghan families as well as a breastfeeding woman were given food but were under direct orders not to share the food with the rest of the family. As of August 10th, the ECtHR ordered the Hungarian government to provide food for the three families. 

Non-governmental organizations who attempt to provide food assistance, advice, or other aid could face up to a year in prison.

Orban has gone on record repeatedly stating that Muslim immigrants are a threat to the Hungarian way of life and cannot coexist in a Christian nation.

We don’t see these people as Muslim refugees. We see them as Muslim invaders.

Deutsche Welle

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