Strasbourg, 28/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Council of Europe secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland said at a press conference on Monday 28 September after a meeting with Hungarian justice minister Laszlo Trocsanyi in Viktor Orban's government that the new Hungarian laws would need to be examined more closely before he could comment on them.
The Hungarian minister said nobody in Hungary likes closing off the border with Serbia, but a solution was needed to keep public order and closing the border is effective.
Alongside explaining the details of how the border closure operates, Laszlo Trocsanyi came to Strasbourg to unveil new laws introduced in Hungary to respond to the migrant crisis.
The laws include special measures to act in a fair manner in transit zones where Migration office employees are working, he said, noting that he had also given details about the role of judges in these zones, penal code sanctions and the procedures introduced relating to legal aid, healthcare, translation and so on.
Laszlo Trocsanyi spoke about the role of the army, saying that there had been a misunderstanding in this connection and it was still the police that was protecting borders, the military only being there as backup.
He said the problem with the crisis was that Hungary is a transit country through which people travel en route to other places and therefore a genuine European consensus is needed because inhabitants in border areas will not allow the flow of migrants to penetrate into their back gardens.
He basically admitted that it was a juggling act, but since Hungary has decided to preserve public order, while respecting international standards for asylum matters, including the European Union's Dublin Regulation and circulation with the Schengen Area. The minister said the new Hungarian laws should help strike a balance between domestic security and human rights.
Did these arguments win over Thorbjorn Jagland and his staff? When asked, the Council of Europe secretary general parried the question, saying it was a very complicated matter. He said the laws would be examined very carefully while keeping the option of going further, pointing out that the European Convention of Human Rights protects every human being everywhere in Europe. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)