BRUSSELS – Frontex, the European Union agency responsible for monitoring the bloc’s outer borders, announced on Wednesday that it is suspending operations in Hungary, following a court order to bring its asylum practices into line with European Union law bring, ignored.
In a ruling in December 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the Hungarian practice of denying asylum seekers protection and removing them to Serbia violated EU law.
But Hungary has refused to end its policy, known as ‘pushback’, and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights group in Budapest, estimates that nearly 4,500 people have been expelled from the country since last year, in direct conflict with the court. ‘s decision.
Amid this disagreement, Frontex decided to withdraw Hungary, the first time the agency has left a member of the EU.
“Frontex has suspended all of its ground operations in Hungary,” the agency told The New York Times in a statement. “Our joint efforts to protect the EU’s foreign borders can only be successful if we ensure that our co – operation and activities are fully in line with EU laws.”
The Hungarian government has for years used the so-called setback policy, which makes the country disagree with the European Union.
Since the withdrawal practice was adopted by the Hungarian government in 2016, more than 50,000 asylum seekers have been deported, most of whom are being sent back to Serbia, according to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. Many asylum seekers first arrive in Europe in Greece, and then make their way to Serbia to gain access to Western Europe via Hungary. The Hungarian government has declared Serbia a safe country for asylum seekers.
“It does not happen in the shadows, it also happens in public,” said Andras Lederer, a senior lawyer at the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. .
The European Union of 27 countries has struggled to develop a coherent migration policy, one of the most controversial issues in European politics since the refugee crisis in 2015, when the arrival of more than one million Syrian refugees fleeing the war, politically prompted. crises in many EU countries and has been used by the far right as a political tool.
The migration issue became a lightning bolt in the intensification of cultural wars in Europe, of which the right-wing populist leaders liked fighting.
None other than Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary, who emerged at the end of the 2015 crisis as a firearm against migration.
The government of mr. Orban erected an electrified razor wire along the southern border of Hungary with Serbia and followed a series of policies that made Hungary an inhospitable destination for those seeking asylum. This included the detention of asylum seekers in metal containers and their automatic rejection if they left the guarded areas while their asylum applications were pending, a practice that the EU Supreme Court rejected in May 2020.
The prime minister also cited a statement that Europe’s response to the migration crisis was part of a conspiracy by billionaire George Soros and Brussels, and implied that the aim was to replace the white, Christian population of Europe with Muslims.
The prime minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Frontex’s decision on Wednesday.
At the end of December, a top adviser on homeland security to Mr. Orban defends the country’s approach.
“Despite the many political attacks that Hungary has faced due to its efforts to protect the border, the government, in the interest of the country and with the support of the Hungarian people, has consistently pursued the migration policy it has pursued since 2015. represented, “said adviser Gyorgy Bakondi.
According to a spokesman for the commission, the executive branch of the bloc, Frontex notified the European Commission on Wednesday afternoon that it was ceasing its operations in Hungary. According to EU regulations, the decision to suspend operations rests entirely with Frontex, and can be taken if there is strong reason to believe that illegal action is taking place in the Member State.
The agency, based in Warsaw, is deploying the bloc’s first joint border guard force and buying and renting high-tech equipment, including drones, enabling EU countries to monitor their borders. But the most visible current job is to tap a pool of border guards from across the block and deploy under his command to other EU countries’ borders, when they need help.
Wednesday’s decision means Frontex officials will no longer help their Hungarian counterparts.
The agency, which has emerged as one of the best-funded in the bloc in recent years, is itself facing an increasing internal crisis, as increasing evidence shows that it was complicit in large-scale human rights violations in Greece, maintains a strong presence.
The leadership has come under severe criticism from the bloc’s institutions, and it is being investigated by the EU Fraud Office for allegations of harassment, misappropriation of funds and misconduct that led to an increasing staff exodus.
An internal investigation into the agency’s participation in Greece’s return of asylum seekers to Turkey continues.
Frontex’s decision to suspend operations in Hungary is only the latest in a series of confrontations between the European Union and Mr. Orban, who showed a certain skill in the bloc’s efforts to sanction his government for abusing the law.
A 2018 European Parliament vote calling on other EU institutions to begin a process of assessing serious risks to the rule of law in Hungary has not moved forward, and an attempt to uphold rule of law standards in member states strengthened as part of the Bloc’s next budget and coronavirus stimulus package has been dramatically watered down following objections by Hungary and Poland.
Since the political institutions of the bloc are less willing to deal with Mr. Wrestling with Orban over the rule of law, the role of the EU’s Supreme Court in accepting Hungary has become clearer.
In June 2020, the court rejected another Hungarian law that imposed ‘discriminatory and unfair restrictions’ on Hungarian civil society organizations receiving money from abroad. Instead of changing the legislation to comply with EU law, the Hungarian government began to apply it.
Such disregard for the rulings of the Supreme Court creates a dangerous precedent, Mr. Lederer, the rights activist, said.
“It fits in with a pattern that started last year, which is obviously extremely worrying,” he said. “At the end of the day, the EU legal order is based on respect for the final rulings of the court.”
Monika Pronczuk reports from Brussels, and Benjamin Novak from Budapest.