German Interior Ministry has said Germany will deport asylum seekers to Hungary only if the Hungarian authorities guarantee that they will in every case be treated in line with standards laid down by the European Union.
“Without an assurance of this kind from the Hungarian authorities there will be no transfer,” the ministry said in remarks reported in Germany’s Funke media group outlets on Tuesday.
The remarks were contained in an official memo dated April 6 from the Interior Ministry to its Migration and Refugee Office (BAMF).
It refered to the process under the EU’s Dublin Regulation, in terms of which asylum seekers must register in the first EU member state that they enter.
To date, Hungary’s nationalist conservative government under Prime Minister Viktor Orban has shown little willingness to take back asylum seekers entering the EU via Hungary.
Whereas most entered the EU via Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and Hungary but often seek to move on to Germany.
On Monday, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called for the transfer of migrants to Hungary to be halted until it complied with international law.
UNHCR noted that since emergency measures had come into force in Hungary on March 24, new asylum seekers, including children, are detained in shipping containers surrounded by high razor fences.
“The situation for asylum seekers in Hungary, which was already of deep concern to UNHCR, has only become worse since the new law introducing mandatory detention for asylum seekers came into effect,’’ UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said. (dpa/NAN)