December 18, 2020 03:19:31 pm
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Thursday that Hungary failed to fulfill its obligations under EU law after adopting legislation that restricts international protection offered to asylum seekers.
The ruling comes after Hungary adopted legislation in 2015 that created transit zones at the Serbian-Hungarian border to apply asylum procedures and created the concept of a “crisis situation caused by mass immigration” in which derogation from general rules would be allowed.
The European Commission subsequently brought an action against Hungary for failure to fulfill its EU obligations by disregarding “the substantive and procedural safeguards provided for” in EU law, restricting access to international protection provided for asylum seekers, and establishing detention zones that asylum seekers could be forcibly deported to.