Amnesty International’s claims about Hungary's treatment of migrants are completely unfounded, Károly Kontrát, the Interior Ministry state secretary, has said.
The human rights organization had said that attacks against migrants and refugees had become common practice in Hungary and many of them were simply sent back to Serbia or detained unlawfully. Kontrát dismissed these claims as “completely untrue”.
“As stated already, Hungarian border guards firmly abide by the law to protect the Hungarian state and its citizens,” he said.
He noted that when Human Rights Watch had raised objections concerning the treatment of refugees in Hungary, an investigation was carried out. The prosecutor’s office found the reports to be false, he said.
Amnesty published a thirty-page report earlier on Tuesday setting out the results of interviews with 143 individuals in Hungary, Serbia and Austria, including 129 refugees and migrants, as well as asylum officials, police officers and staff members of non-governmental organizations.
According to the report, several thousand refugees, including unaccompanied children, were treated violently and subjected to unlawful returns or detention by the Hungarian authorities. Hungary’s asylum procedure was designed to reject them, Amnesty insisted.