March, 2017. Kelebija, Serbia. Newly-built Hungarian detention camp for migrants at the Serbian-Hungarian border. Krystian Maj/ Press Association. All rights reserved.On May 23, 2016 Abdullah, a 26 year
old man from Afghanistan crossed the border from Serbia to Hungary. He managed
to break through the razor wire reinforced border fence Hungary had just
erected in the fall of the year before and was apprehended by uniformed men
near a Hungarian village.
He and the eight other people who
were caught with him were forced to return back to the border fence where 30
policemen waited for them. They were told to keep their heads down, not to
catch a glimpse of what was about to happen. Yet, Abdullah raised his head, and
saw the policemen approaching. They carried a big canister of pepper spray.
Then the beating began.
After a while, the refugees were
handcuffed and led to a little hole the police had opened in the fence.
Suddenly, a police man approached Abdullah and sprayed his face with pepper
spray. He could not see. The police men forced him to crawl through the little
hole in the razor wire fence. As he was crawling, the policemen kicked his butt
and laughed. By the time he had made it to the Serbian side of the border, he
had suffered severe cuts.
Abdullah’s story is not unique. In
2017 alone, approximately 10,000 refugees were apprehended, and forcefully
pushed back to the Serbian side of the border fence. The Hungarian border is
now patrolled by a specially formed police unit that bears the official name of
“border hunters” and by uniformed private vigilante groups. They go on the hunt
for refugees.
A recently adopted law allows for
these hunts. A refugee may be apprehended anywhere in the country and be pushed
back to Serbia without being able to launch an asylum procedure.
Those that enter Hungary in one of
the two transit zones may apply for asylum. Yet, their chances are slim. Only
two persons are allowed to enter every day – one per zone. This means that
families must remain on the other side of the border. Back in the days, we
would have called these zones concentration camps. Now, the barbed-wire-surrounded
container camps that are guarded by men with guns are not referred to as such.
The government of Hungary makes sure
to emphasize that they do not detain refugees. After all, the imprisoned
refugees may leave the zone any time – through a door that leads back to
Serbia.
EU and EPP silence
These scenes occur daily at the
periphery of the European Union. It is not met with resistance. The EU
institutions remain quiet. So do individual member states such as Germany,
France and the UK. Why?
The answer is as simple as it is hard
to bear. Core EU member states profit from Hungary’s policies towards refugees.
Sure, the EU commission has launched two infringement procedures against
Hungary. Yet, none of them condemned the treatment of refugees at its borders.
None concern the fact that it has become virtually impossible for men like
Abdullah to apply for asylum.
Viktor Orban, prime minister of
Hungary, is still a welcome guest of politicians of the likes of Austrian
chancellor Sebastian Kurz, or leading German conservative politician Horst
Seehofer. Likewise, Orban’s party remains a member of the European People’s
Party group (EPP) in the European Parliament, and thus remains a partner to
other conservative parties such as Merkel’s CDU and Rajoy’s People’s Party in
Spain. The EPP has repeatedly and openly supported Orban’s election campaign
that was focused solely on the promise to keep the borders closed and refugees
out, even at the cost of a political regime that seems to slide into
autocracy. Even though liberal circles have moaned at Orban’s policies
towards refugees, their politicians have not taken action.
Core and periphery
The fact is that Hungary’s cruel
policy towards refugees plays into the hands of other EU member states. They
turn their eyes from the violation of human rights and the violation of the
right to seek asylum, as long as Hungary’s policies keep away the refugees from
their doorstep. While the dirty job is being done by countries at Europe’s
periphery, core EU member states can prove to their electorates that the refugee
crisis is over, that they must not be afraid from more people entering their
country.
It is a sad “win-win” situation.
Orban is allowed to prove that he is the sole protector of Europe’s “homelands
and Christian culture”, as he has proudly said in his latest address to the
nation, while politicians such as Angela Merkel may simultaneously proclaim
that in their countries, the right to seek asylum represents a fundamental
principle that allows for no compromise. At the same time that politicians such
as Merkel polish their shining armour, the dirty job done at Europe’s periphery
shelters them from actually having to apply their principles on their own
territory.
Who has to bear the costs are people
such as Abdullah. As long as other EU member states condone what is happening
at the EU’s periphery, all principles of human rights and of the right to seek
asylum remain nothing more than a promise in a far distant land – a land they
may not enter.
