2023-07-14 19:28:30
On Friday July 14, the European Commission launched an infringement procedure against Hungary in connection with a decree providing for the release of hundreds of migrant smugglers with a view to their expulsion. The government of Prime Minister, nationalist Viktor Orban, decided at the end of April to release 700 prisoners convicted of human trafficking, mostly from surrounding countries.
The text aims to allow the early release of any foreign prisoner convicted of human trafficking – a crime punishable by up to ten years in prison – on condition that he undertakes to leave Hungarian territory. In “seventy-two hours”. It also stipulates that the prisoner may go and sue “his detention” In “its territory of habitual residence”.
Hungarian authorities argue that prisons are facing an increase in the number of inmates convicted of human trafficking – they represent 13% of the total, or 2,600 people, from 73 countries. The decree published on April 27 therefore aims to limit “the cost for Hungarian taxpayers”.
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Austria protests
This decision by Hungary triggered, among other things, protests from neighboring Austria, which qualified it through the voice of its Minister for Foreign Affairs as “totally wrong signal”. Alexander Schallenberg summoned the Hungarian ambassador to Vienna to ask him ” explinations “. The Austrian authorities fear that many freed smugglers will take the opportunity to enter Austria. Controls have been tightened along the approximately 400 kilometers of border separating the two countries.
No provision is made to monitor the application of the detention sentence for smugglers outside Hungary, notes the European Commission. The EU executive further considers that “Such shortened penalties applied to people convicted of human trafficking are neither effective nor dissuasive”.
The European Commission has sent a letter of formal notice to Hungary, which has two months to respond to its concerns. Such a procedure can lead to the referral to European justice, and to possible financial sanctions.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto blasted the move. “The model of human trafficking works because Brussels implements policies favorable to immigration”he estimated.
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