Asylum Seekers in Hungarian Detention Start Hunger Strike
Migrants and asylum seekers in a Hungarian detention center went on a hunger strike starting Monday, Hungary’s immigration and asylum office told Reuters.
At least 94 of the 102 inmates in the Bekescsaba camp near the Romanian border began the strike to protest their detention and the appalling conditions inside the closed facility.
“Most of the hunger strikers are under Dublin proceedings as they unlawfully left the country of first entry into the European Union,” Hungarian authorities explained to Reuters in an emailed statement.
“They complained about being fingerprinted as they have no intention to stay in Hungary,” the email statement to Reuters added.
In a letter addressed to the Hungarian immigration authorities, the migrants sought permission to leave the country.
State of Tennessee vs. Federal Government Over Resettlement
The state of Tennessee filed a lawsuit against the U.S. federal government over its refugee resettlement program on the basis of the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, according to the Tennessean.
Tennessee is the first state to implement the amendment.
The lawsuit was launched on the basis of the “unconstitutionality” of the Federal Refugee Resettlement Program that purportedly violates states’ rights.
According to the state of Tennessee, which withdrew from the federal refugee resettlement program in 2007, the federal government continued to resettle refugees by authorizing local faith-based groups to administer the resettlement while asking the state to pay for it.
Therefore, the lawsuit claims that the federal government is not abiding by the Refugee Act of 1980 that is tied to the 10th Amendment. According to the 10th Amendment, the federal government is only vested with powers defined by the Constitution, while the states have authority over all other decisions.
“Operation of the federal refugee resettlement program commandeers Tennessee’s funds through Medicaid with the threatened loss of nearly $7 billion, amounting to 20 percent of its overall state budget – money that is needed to fund services that are critical to the health and welfare of countless Tennesseans,” the lawsuit said.
Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, denounced the lawsuit in a statement, expressing concerns over the “not only very troubling, but unjust and wrong move against Muslim refugees.”
U.K. Returns Asylum Seekers to Countries Where They Face Abuse
Using the Dublin regulations, the U.K. is returning asylum seekers to eastern European states where they face “police brutality, detention and beatings,” migrants rights groups informed the Guardian.
The Home Office is returning people to other E.U. countries under the Dublin rules that require asylum seekers to apply in the first port of entry.
Migrants’ rights groups say that the assumption that asylum seekers will be treated in a humane manner by all E.U. countries is not grounded in reality, given the conditions in the Balkan member states.
Asylum seekers are beaten by border guards in Bulgaria, locked in “cages” in Hungary and “waterboarded” in Romania, according to some of the testimonies presented by rights groups in the U.K. and the Balkans.
“These are people who were abused in their home country, sometimes jailed by the regime there. Then they were imprisoned again in Europe. They feel that they are still living in a war zone, moving from one arrest and detention to another,” said Nazek Ramadan, the director of Migrant Voice.
Recommended Reads:
- The New Yorker: A Janitor Preserves the Seized Belongings of Migrants
- NPR : On Both Sides of the Mexican Border, Fear Grows for U.S.-Bound Migrants
- Al Jazeera: Jammu: Right-Wing Groups Try to Evict Rohingya Refugees
- UNHCR: For Struggling Syrians in Mauritania, Finland Offers Fresh Hope
- Aleteia: Las Patronas: Women Aid Migrants Risking Their Lives on a Northbound Train