Status: 11/16/2021 10:46 a.m.
The so-called “Stop Soros” law in Hungary criminalizes refugee workers who help migrants to apply for asylum. The European Court of Justice has now ruled that the country is in breach of current EU law.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been following a strict anti-migration policy for years. The European Court of Justice has therefore shown him the limits on several occasions. Now there is another judgment against the politics of the right-wing nationalist: The so-called “Stop Soros Law” violates EU law, according to the judges in Luxembourg.
It criminalizes activists and employees of non-governmental organizations who help migrants to apply for asylum, although they are probably not eligible for protection according to Hungarian criteria.
This restricts the right of asylum seekers “to communicate with the relevant national, international and non-governmental organizations and to receive support from them,” argues the EU Commission. The Brussels authority monitors compliance with common law in the international community.
The background to the judgment is a lawsuit by the EU Commission against the law of 2018. The Hungarian regulation would limit the rights of those who support people seeking international protection under EU law, it said.
Multiple complaints against Hungary’s asylum rules
The term “Stop Soros” refers to the liberal US billionaire George Soros. The Holocaust survivor from Hungary supports numerous civil organizations with his humanitarian foundation that help refugees and asylum seekers. The Hungarian government accuses Soros of bringing large numbers of Muslim immigrants to Europe and attacks him with anti-Semitic stereotypes.
The EU Commission sued Hungary several times in the past years because of the asylum rules before the ECJ. The Court of Justice has ruled several times that fundamental parts of Hungarian asylum policy violate EU law. Among other things, the judges ruled last year that the Hungarian rule, according to which an asylum application can be rejected if the applicant enters via a “safe transit country”, is illegal.
However, Hungary did not always implement the judgments to the satisfaction of the EU Commission. Only last week did the authority apply to the ECJ for financial sanctions against Budapest because Hungary did not adequately implement a ruling from December last year. At that time, the ECJ found that Hungarian regulations on the rules and procedures in transit zones on the Serbian-Hungarian border violated EU law. In particular, Hungary has still not taken the necessary measures to ensure effective access to the asylum procedure, the Commission said.