Analysis

UN expresses concern over politicisation of migrants in Hungary

refugees immigrants

The United Nations has expressed deep concern over how migration and migrants themselves are being politicised and scapegoated in Hungary.

“Migrants are portrayed as dangerous enemies in both official and public discourses in this country,” said Felipe González Morales, the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. “I have seen groups of desperate, traumatised and helpless men, women, boys and girls confined behind razor-wire fences in the transit zones.”

Mr Morales expressed concerns over asylum procedures and the transit zones, believing that Hungary created a crisis situation linked to mass immigration  in parts of the country in September 2015 and later expanded the scope of it nationwide in March 2016.

“I strongly recommend Hungary to re-evaluate its current reality in relation to migration, to terminate immediately the so-called ‘crisis situation’ and lift relevant restrictive measures,” he added.