Hungarian President Janos Ader signed into law a measure that will force detention of migrants from the Middle East in container camps on the border, while they await asylum decisions.
“The new law is part of the Hungarian government’s “legal border closure,” a series of regulations which — together with the fences built in 2015 on the borders of Serbia and Croatia — are meant to keep migrants out of the country,” reports AP.
In addition to building double barrier fences and keeping asylum seekers on the border until their cases are decided, Hungary recently established a new police force to augment the border patrol called the ‘Border Hunters.’
The border camp detention law was opposed by EU and human rights organizations. The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, said the decision was a “deep disappointment for all those children … who will be affected by this new law. Detention is never in a child’s best interest,” reports AP.