Impressions from a visit at Nyirbator detention center on 12th of November:

People detained there are partially people who were arrested and detained directly after arriving in Hungary, others are people who were detained after being deported to Hungary from other EU countries based on „Dublin II“ or other bilateral agreements.

Many of them have applied for asylum in Hungary and their case is open, but they are kept in detention due to the Hungarian law allowing to detain people during their asylum procedure.

People are told by the authorities: If you want to leave the closed camp and be free, the only exit for you is to accept being deported to Serbia – a clear blackmailing of refugees! As Serbia is no EU member and thus not part of Dublin II, I doubt if there is normally any legal base for deportations from Hungary to Serbia according to international law forbidding so-called „Refoulement“ (does anyone know more about?).

As far as I understood the information told by one of the refugees in Nyirbator, it also happens sometimes that people get deported from Nyirbator to Serbia even if they didn’t agree to be deported.

Structure of the detention center: As far as I understood, there is one building generally for detention of people, one side building where people are brought to wait for deportation to Serbia and one „hospital“ building for sick people.

Conditions: People complain about conditions that are terribly bad: The food is very bad and causing serious health problems, many people are sick but don’t get proper treatment. For being taken to an appointment with the authorities or to the doctor, people are handcuffed (I saw it myself), sometimes alone, sometimes two persons locked together, and lead by a chain (I found it an image like from a US „chain gang“ movie…). People complain also about lack of information concerning their legal procedure and the trust to the few lawyers who are showing up at Nyirbator (including those of Helsinki Committee) seems to be quite low, as some refugees accuse them to work more in favour of the authorities (I can’t judge in how far this is true, but a lack of confidence is definitely there).

Possibilities/expectations to do something against the situation: One of the refugees in Nyirbator said that they really would like to have a platform through media, internet etc. to let the world know about what they are facing in the detention center and to mobilise solidarity for their demand to get free. In Budapest, we discussed with two local activists about the possibility to set up an internet platform (blog or sth. similar) to publish testimonies from refugees in Nyirbator. This could be a tool for people in Nyirbator to call for support in their desperate situation and also a contribution to make political pressure against „Dublin II“ deportations to Hungary.