Two European Court of Human Rights judgements against Hungary have placed the spotlight on the country’s treatment of asylum seekers.
Al-Tayyar Abdelhakim v. Hungary (no. 13058/11) and Hendrin Ali Said and Aras Ali Said v. Hungary (no. 13457/11)
Both cases concerned complaints under Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security) by asylum-seekers currently staying at the Debrecen Reception Centre for Refugees (Hungary) about the unlawfulness of their detention – without effective judicial review – pending the outcome of their asylum claims.
The applicant in the first case, Alaa Al-Tayyar Abdelhakim, is a Palestinian national who was born in 1985. Stopped by the Hungarian border control at Záhony (Hungary) in July 2010 for using a forged passport, he claimed asylum, explaining that he came from a refugee camp in Tripoli, Lebanon, where he faced security problems.
The applicants in the second case, Hendrin Ali Said and Aras Ali Said, are Iraqi nationals who were born in 1992 and 1989 respectively. They left Iraq in August 2009 and illegally entered Hungary, where they made a first asylum attempt before travelling illegally to the Netherlands with the help of traffickers. Intercepted in the Netherlands, they were then transferred back to Hungary in September 2010 under the Dublin II procedure.
They claimed asylum, alleging that they had been persecuted in Iraq because of their father’s former service in Saddam Hussein’s army and their Kurdish ethnicity.
Violation of Article 5 § 1
Just satisfaction: In their 23 October judgement, judges awarded EUR 10,000 (non-pecuniary damage) and EUR 2,515 (costs and expenses) to Al-Tayyar Abdelhakim; in the case of Hendrin Ali Said and Aras Ali Said, EUR 10,000 (non-pecuniary damage) to each applicant and EUR 2,515 (costs and expenses) to the applicants jointly.
