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Hungary wrong to ban refugee support: EU adviser

ECJ will rule on the case at a later date.

25 February, 15:45
(ANSA-AFP) - BUDAPEST, FEB 25 - Hungary broke EU law by criminalising efforts to help would-be refugees claim protection, the European Curt of Justice's top legal adviser said Thursday. The opinion of Advocate General Athanasios Rantos is not binding on the judges hearing the case brought by the European Commission against the Hungarian government. But it is seen as highly influential, and points towards Prime Minister Viktor Orban's anti-immigrant government once again falling foul of European law. In 2018, Budapest brought in a law to refuse an asylum application if the would-be refugee had crossed a safe country on his or her way to Hungary. The ECJ has already ruled this condition was illegal, but the Hungarian law also criminalised efforts by lawyers to help such refugees seek protection. "The criminalisation of those activities impinges on the exercise of the rights guaranteed by the EU legislature," the advocate general said in his opinion. The ECJ will rule on the case at a later date. (ANSA-AFP).

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