Strasbourg, 18/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - In a tweet posted during a working visit to Slovakia, Nils Muiznieks, the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe (COE), described Hungary's project to build a fence to protect it from immigration flows from Serbia, which it announced on Thursday 18 June, as “ill-advised”.
This very first reaction will be followed by a more calculated analysis as soon as the Commissioner returns to Strasbourg next week, explained sources close to him.
It is also part of a series of positions taken by Nils Muiznieks against the government of Viktor Orban. In his report on Hungary, published at the end of 2014, he already flagged up human rights questions in this country and concern about the freedom and pluralism of the media, the rise in racism and anti-Semitism and the presence of the extreme right-wing Jobbik Party at the Parliament, which the Commissioner accuses of having cooperated with paramilitary organisations to intimidate different minorities.
He also highlights the question of asylum seekers and refugees and their unjustified detention, which led to the COE calling on Hungary to develop a long-term programme for integrating refugees.
Nils Muiznieks also condemned the idea of reintroducing the death penalty, which Viktor Orban has argued for. The Commissioner said that this is “incompatible with Hungary's obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights”.
With regard to the text put forward in May for the national consultation on immigration and terrorism, which linked the two phenomena in his document title and the contents of his questionnaire, Nils Muiznieks described it as “additional proof of the Hungarian government's negative vision of human rights… Public consultations are of course an important aspect in a democratic society… Nevertheless, the contents of the consultation proposed in Hungary are unacceptable. It will only incite intolerance of migrants, which are considered dangerous in Hungarian society”.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto wanted to know why building a fence to protect themselves was dangerous because “this is not in breach of any international treaty”. On Wednesday, he announced that he had given instructions to the Ministry of the Interior to start building this 175 km long fence next week.
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly will also be held last week in Strasbourg, with two of the assembly members, Hungary and Serbia, attending. The question will undoubtedly be included as an emergency point on the agenda and will be expanded to include the weakness of Europe's response to the migratory crises that are finding the Mediterranean, as well as the Balkans and Serbia, by way of transiting Hungary, on the front line. (Véronique Leblanc)