Author
Under Section 31/A(1) of the Asylum Act, the NDGAP may detain an asylum seeker:
- To establish his or her identity or nationality;
- Where a procedure is on-going for the expulsion of a person seeking recognition and it can be proven on the basis of objective criteria – inclusive of the fact that the applicant has had the opportunity beforehand to submit an application of asylum – or there is a well-founded reason to presume that the person seeking recognition is applying for asylum exclusively to delay or frustrate the performance of the expulsion;
- In order to establish the required data for conducting the procedure and where these facts or circumstances cannot be established in the absence of detention, in particular when there is a risk of absconding by the applicant;
- To protect national security or public order;
- Where the application has been submitted in an airport procedure;
- Where it is necessary to carry out a Dublin transfer and there is a serious risk of absconding; or
- In order to decide on the applicant’s right to enter the country.[1]
(1a) In order to carry out the Dublin transfer, the refugee authority may take into asylum detention a foreigner who failed to apply for asylum in Hungary and the Dublin handover can take place in his or her case.
(1b) The rules applicable to applicants in asylum detention shall apply mutatis mutandis to a foreigner detained under Subsection (1a) for the duration of the asylum detention. Following the termination of the asylum detention and the frustration of the transfer, the alien policing rules shall apply.
The risk of absconding is defined in Section 36/E of the Asylum Decree as present if “the third-country national does not cooperate with the authorities during the immigration proceedings, in particular if”:
- He or she refuses to make a statement or sign the documents;
- He or she supplies false information in connection with his or her personal data; or
- Based on his or her statements, it is probable that he or she will depart for an unknown destination, and therefore there are reasonable grounds for presuming that he or she will frustrate the realisation of the purpose of the asylum procedure (including Dublin procedure).
Since the entry into force of amendments to asylum legislation on 28 March 2017, asylum detention was hardly ever used, as people were held in the transit zones in de facto detention. Transit zones were closed on 21 May 2020 and since 26 May 2020 the new asylum system is in place, which results in only 38 asylum applications in Hungary in 2021. Out of 38, only two asylum seekers were detained.
[1] The new ground entered into force on 14 May 2021.