MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd August, 2018) The Hungarian authorities stopped in early August providing food to some of the asylum seekers detained in transit zones on the border between Hungary and Serbia, a prominent human rights watchdog said on Wednesday, calling on the European Union to address the issue.
"The government has stooped to a new inhumane low by refusing food to people in their custody, apparently revelling in breaching human rights law, including its obligations as a European Union member," Lydia Gall, Eastern EU and Balkans researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said, as quoted on the HRW website.
According to the HRW, dozens of asylum seekers are currently being denied food, although the Hungarian authorities have resumed food distribution to several migrants following the European Court of Human Rights' orders.
In July, amendments to Hungarian asylum law came into force, which enabled the government to deport people who have been denied asylum, even despite their intentions to appeal the decision. Those pending deportation from the country are placed into transit zones.
On Monday, Hungary's Immigration and Asylum Office said that Hungarian law did not directly oblige authorities to provide food to people detained in the transit zones.
Gall qualifies the authorities'actions as a "cynical move" aimed at urging the asylum seekers to leave the country.
"EU institutions should take this latest attack on peoples rights, add it to the large file of rule of law and human rights concerns in Hungary, and send a clear message that blatantly abusing asylum seekers and flouting EU rules will have serious consequences," Gall added.
The Hungarian government has been long subject to the European Union's criticism for its tough stance on migrants amid their influx to Europe. The most recent example of Hungary's position is the law banning non-governmental organizations from providing aid to undocumented migrants.
