(Newswire.net— May 4, 2019) — Hungary deliberately denies food to migrants whose applications for asylum have been rejected, German media group Deutsche Welle reports.
By depriving the migrants of food, Hungary is violating International law, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement criticizing the antimilitarist policies of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The UN Commissariat stated that they have received information according to which the Hungarian authorities in August 2018 denied food to at least 21 migrants who were waiting for expulsion from the country.
It is also stated that migrants in some cases did not receive food for up to five days.
In September 2018, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michael Basile accused Hungary of not giving food to migrants who were in a transit zone on the border with Serbia.
After receiving a warning from the European Court of Human Rights, Hungarian authorities promised to put an end to such a practice.
The UN, however, today stated that there are reports that such a practice has continued. It is added that while pregnant women and children are being treated well, food is denied to adult migrants whose asylum application gets rejected.
The Hungarian government adamantly denied the UN high commissioner’s claims, arguing that those migrants whose asylum applications are in the process of review, receive food aid and accommodation.
The government in Budapest, however, admitted that it was not responsible for those who did not seek asylum or those migrants whose applications were rejected.
“It’s a self delusion to call this situation a migration crisis; it is a massive migration of nations, with inexhaustible reserves,” Hungary’s minister for foreign affairs and trade Peter Szijjártó said for the Hungarian Times.
The government stated that such migrants are free to leave the country and return to Serbia. The migrants, however, have no desire to stay in Serbia, the country that is not an EU member, so they refuse to go back. Those who try to re-enter Serbia are denied entrance by Serbian border police and they find themselves roaming no man’s land without access to food and water.
The UN rejected the Hungarian argument, stressing that such “voluntary” departures could lead to the illegal entry back into Serbia and violations of Serbian law. “We encourage Hungary to respect its human rights obligations to those who are deprived of their liberty, whether in transit zones or in reception centers where they themselves cannot meet their basic needs,” the UN added.