Ombudsman turns to top court over EU migrant quotas

Budapest, December 3 (MTI) – The ombudsman for basic rights has turned to the Constitutional Court over the issue of the EU’s migrant quota system. Laszlo Szekely would like to clear up legal concerns around the issue of a mandatory transfer of asylum seekers to Hungarian territory, his office said on Thursday.

One of the issues asked by Szekely is: “Can Hungarian institutions and organisations lend a helping hand in enforcing the illegal expulsion decisions of other states?” After receiving a decision for expulsion from EU authorities asylum-seekers have no chance to have their say against the move, which is against general EU legal norms, the ombudsman said.

Szekely referred to Hungary’s fundamental law, which declares that Hungarian institutions cannot enforce any EU measures which run into the basic law’s human rights chapters. When the EU issues expulsion decisions for migrants en masse, this leads to collective expulsion which is against basic EU treaties, he said. Expulsion is only possible after processing applications on an individual basis, he added.

Another concern notes that the Hungarian state is not obliged to enforce any EU measure for which it did not give a mandate at the time of signing the agreements on EU accession.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters