The EU will take legal action against Hungary's stringent migration policies



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The executive power of the European Union will pursue Hungary for the treatment of asylum seekers by the government, intensifying the battle to find a balance between the continent's legal guarantees for refugees and popular demand stricter borders.

The European Commission said Thursday that it would ask the highest EU courts to consider the government in violation of several EU treaties requiring the protection of aliens who request the EU. asylum on the continent. These decisions have the power to fine Hungary for non-compliance.

The decision, conveyed in an official letter, probably leaves the European Court of Justice to decide on a fundamental debate dividing Europe, with broad implications on how the bloc settles down different conceptions of democracy and human rights.

Hungarian voters have largely approved the Prime Minister's nationalist policy

Viktor Orban,

who has campaigned almost exclusively on the removal of refugees since 2015, when more than one million people have crossed Europe from the Middle East and Africa. He won a third consecutive term in April.

Orban

has pursued actions, such as detaining asylum seekers for months in remodeled sea containers, that the Commission claims to be violating the treaties to which Hungary subscribed in 2003 when it voted overwhelmingly to join the EU . Since 2015, the Commission has asked Mr Orban to change his laws

The legal battle has posed profound questions about the purpose and future of the European collective union, with the Polish and Slovak governments supporting the uncompromising position of Mr. Orban. According to Mr Orban's critics, he is eroding the rule of law and encouraging Hungarian neighbors to do the same.

According to EU rules, the Hungarian government has two months to respond to the concerns of the Commission. rules. "We are, of course, ready for the debates that this procedure will lead," said the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Peter Szijjarto.

Among European leaders, Mr Orban soon surfed a wave of anti-immigration sentiments that brought nationalist parties to power in neighboring Austria and Slovenia.

Indeed, in the short term, the trial could give Mr. Orban, according to some analysts, by drawing public attention to his police issue of the country's border. Later this year, Mr Orban hopes to adopt a constitutional amendment that would prevent the EU from applying the rules of refugee settlement here. The text of this proposed amendment begins: "Foreign populations can not be settled in Hungary."

The government's draconian migration policies "also give Orban cover to continue dismantling democracy," says

Gabor Gyori,

an analyst at the Policy Solutions policy consultancy, based in Budapest, citing measures taken by the government to closely monitor institutions such as the Hungarian Central Bank, its judiciary and the media

. Orban is installed along the southern front of Hungary, where a 13-foot-high fence supports barbed wire, searchlights and loudspeakers.

A handful of asylum seekers are allowed every day to spend two sometimes months. The others wait in tented camps – a bottleneck, according to the commission, which hinders the right to seek at least asylum.

Troops on horseback repel migrants, denying their chance to seek protection. A separate law prohibits aid groups from approaching the border. It imposes custodial sentences on anyone who distributes information encouraging illegal migration.

These measures enjoy considerable support in Hungary. Virtually none of the Hungarian opposition leaders criticize Mr Orban's border fence.

The country's main opposition party, the Nazi Party Jobbik, promised to be even tougher when he was elected. Rival politicians have been confused by a politician who has focused the elections here on the singular question of who can best protect the border.

Anita Komuves

contributed to this article.

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