ECHR Condemns Hungary for Unlawful Rejection of Young Asylum Seeker

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has made a landmark ruling in the case of an Iraqi-Kurdish child seeking asylum, after a six and a half year legal battle. The court found that the Hungarian government breached human rights when they forcibly pushed the child back to Serbia in 2017 without proper investigation.

The child, named Karoh, fled his home country at the age of 16 in 2017. Despite the Hungarian police being aware of his age, they forced him to go to Serbia instead of placing him in the Children’s Home for Unaccompanied Minors in the town of Fót. This decision has been ruled unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the EU.

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The Court criticized the fact that the victim of the Hungarian’s state violation was a child in need of help. Attorney Tamás Fazekas, representing Karoh, stated that Hungary should review asylum applications under a fair asylum system instead of deporting children without due process.

This judgment in Strasbourg is the sixth in a series of decisions for the clients of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. The Committee stressed that fundamental human rights apply to internationals and has been confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights for the second time.

The European Court of Human Rights declared Hungary guilty of inhuman treatment of people seeking asylum in three judgements delivered at Strasbourg last year. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has emphasized that for more than five years, Hungarian transit zones were not a gateway to the country’s asylum protections and their role was to scare and exhaust asylum seekers, thus depriving them of asylum.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged Hungary and Belgium to finalize the Migration Asylum Pact after both countries held the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU this year. This ruling sets an important precedent for the treatment of asylum seekers in Hungary and highlights the need for fair and just asylum policies.