The European Court of Justice has ruled that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic acted against EU law when they rebuffed a migrant distribution deal as displaced people arrived to the bloc en masse in 2015.
Hungary has announced that it is suspending the admission of migrants to its so-called 'transit zones', claiming there is a connection between coronavirus and illegal immigration. A chief security advisor to the Hungarian prime minister on March 1 said the country will "defend its borders" and "not a single illegal migrant" will be allowed to enter.
The governments of both Austria and Hungary have issued firm statements following Turkish announcements that it has opened its borders to allow migrants and refugees on towards the EU. Both Austria and Hungary say they will defend their borders to prevent a repeat of what happened in 2015 when hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees entered the EU via the Balkan route.
The Council of Europe has launched an alarm over the growth in racism and violence against minorities and NGOs in Europe, fed by ultra-nationalism, antisemitism, and hate against Muslims.
The protection rate for asylum seekers in Hungary has dropped to 12% in 2019. A Hungarian newspaper reports that only 60 asylum seekers were given protection in 2019, compared to around 360 in the previous year.
About 200 migrants gathered at Serbia’s border with Hungary on Thursday. Their demand: To be let into the European Union. But on Friday, they were bused to asylum centers further inside Serbia.
Hungarian border guards on the country’s southern border with Serbia fired warning shots when about 60 migrants tried to force their way through a checkpoint on Tuesday morning. Police said no one was injured, but migrants claimed excessive force was used.
According to a recent study by IPSOS, most people in Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Greece believe that there are far more migrants in their countries than there actually are.
Two tunnels were found in Hungary that were used by migrants to cross into the country from Serbia.
Asurma Arab fled Afghanistan to seek safety in Europe with her family. Over two years later she remains stranded in Serbia, her family torn apart. On the last attempt to cross the border, her husband and oldest daughter managed to get past Croatian guards, leaving Asurma and three younger children behind.
Hungary's refugee and migrant policies have been in breach of international human rights conventions as well as EU regulation for years. Along the country's border with Serbia there's now a new, underreported trend affecting migrants: deliberate starvation.
In the dispute with the right-wing nationalist government in Hungary over providing for rejected asylum seekers, the European Commission has upped the pressure. The government in Budapest has not yet smoothed out concerns, the responsible EU authority in Brussels said. Hungary now has one month to comply with EU rules or else face court action.