The Hungarian government has appealed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that orders Hungary to compensate two Bangladeshi asylum seekers for wrongly detaining and deporting them in 2015.
The ECtHR said that Hungary had violated the European Convention on Human Rights by detaining the asylum seekers in the Röszke transit zone. The court said that authorities sent them back to Serbia which put them at risk of facing inhumane treatment in the Greek refugee reception centers.
Pál Völner, Justice Ministry state secretary, said that rulings like this could “tear down the Schengen system” and generate “business human rights protection”.
The court had ordered Hungary to pay the asylum seekers 10,000 EUR each in compensation. The state was also ordered to pay 3 million HUF (9,800 HUF) in legal fees to the Helsinki Committee, which had taken on their legal representation.
Völner said that the fact that one of the judges on the ECtHR is among the founders of Budapest’s Central European University and “has close ties to” the Hungarian Helsinki Committee raised the possibility of a conflict of interest in the case.
He felt the court’s ruling could open the flood gates for more migrants heading to Europe and has asked the ECtHR to weigh the global impact of the case.