In the summer of 2015, tens of thousands of people from violence- and poverty-torn countries crossed the border between Serbia and Hungary seeking international protection. In this report, we show that the so-called “refugee crisis” that ensued was the direct result of the inability and unwillingness of the Hungarian government under the nationalist-conservative Fidesz-party and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to provide effective support to those affected. To this end, we documented the experiences of people seeking international protection and then related those experiences to the increasingly restrictive political and legal context in Hungary. The testimonies we collected are of great political importance: While a lot has been written about the events of last summer, most accounts either provide a sterile chronological description, focus on the participation of Hungarian and international volunteers, or merely depict a snapshot of the experiences of people seeking protection. Yet, embedded analysis of the actual experiences of people who were transiting through Hungary is missing. This is problematic and dangerous because these people are both the most vulnerable and the most aware of the effect of failing government policies. Thus their voices should be heeded more carefully in determining our shared responsibility to pursue basic human rights for a dignified life.We conducted almost 50 in-depth interviews to focus on the following main themes and issues:
1) the transit-area at the Hungarian-Serbian border
2) registration and forced fingerprinting
3) detention and reception conditions
4) translation and information
5) minors
6) medical care, and
7) trains and smugglers.Taken together, those themes provide a comprehensive account of how people seeking international protection experienced the workings and effects of the European and Hungarian border regimes.
In particular, our interviews show that the increasing criminalization of seeking protection in Hungary led to the emergency in the transit-zones in Budapest. This indicates that the “refugee crisis” of last summer was neither inevitable nor surprising. Moreover, we demonstrate throughout this report that the actual crisis, namely irresponsible governance and xenophobic incitement, is entrenched in the government’s migration policies and the insistence to uphold the Dublin Regulation.
In fact, one year after the events in Hungary and Budapest caught international attention, this very crisis continues today. As a result, another humanitarian emergency is currently in the making, not only in the “transit-zones” at the Hungarian border but also within the country. In continuity with the developments we document in this report, the Hungarian government continues to suspend both asylum- and integration-support and thereby – again – fails people seeking international protection.
In light of the above, we hope that this detailed and uncompromised report provides a piece of evidence from the grassroots-level. We publish it in both Hungarian and English to inform local and international debate about the situation in Hungary and the inner workings and effects of the increasingly restrictive European border-regime. Our primary objective is to raise awareness and facilitate informed debate about the governmental policies that have triggered the crisis of the summer of 2015 as well as about what we can do to push for more responsible governance together.
