(Reuters) The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has called on Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government to repeal a tightening of the Hungarian asylum system, provisions of which it says could violate international laws.
Hungary shut so-called migrant transit zones on its borders last month, freeing about 300 refugees from prison-like conditions, but also hardened rules, in effect barring future asylum applicants.
The new rules require asylum seekers to submit applications at consulates in neighbouring countries rather than at the Hungarian border.
“This may expose asylum-seekers to the risk of refoulement and ill-treatment which would amount to a violation of the 1951 Refugee Convention and other international and regional human rights instruments to which Hungary is a State Party,” the UNHCR said in a statement late on Monday.
