Hungary to detain migrants in container camps

Hungary's government plans to hold refugees and migrants entering the country, as well as those already in existing facilities, in border camps built of containers, the government announced Thursday.

The tough new measure affecting migrants waiting for asylum claims to be processed, is the latest step by right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government to deal with the thousands of people trying to get into Europe over the past two years.

Orban's chief of staff Janos Lazar described it as a protective measure.

"We need a legal system that protects us. This is a very serious change," he said, adding the measure would be enacted only when the government was in a state of emergency over migration. The government has declared the country to be in such a state since March of last year. 

"People's freedom of movement will be removed, they will be able to stay only in a place designated for them," Lazar said at a weekly press briefing. "Containers suitable for accommodating 200-300 people will be erected. Migrants will have to wait there for a legally binding decision on their claims," Lazar said.

Asylum seekers will be able to take part in court proceedings via telecommunications equipment that will be provided in the camps, he added.

Lazar announced the plans as part of a package of legal proposals to go before parliament that would reintroduce automatic detention for asylum seekers arriving in Hungary.

Hungary suspended its detentions of asylum applicants in 2013, under pressure from the EU, the UN refugee agency and the European Court of Human Rights.

"But since then there have been terror acts in western Europe," Orban said in January. "Any legal regulation that facilitates terror acts must be changed in the interests of our own self-defence."

He said he was aware that this "openly goes against the EU", of which Hungary is a member, putting his government in "open conflict" with the 28-nation bloc.

Lazar also said Hungary was ready to build a second, stronger fence on its southern border with Serbia and Croatia, and that the government was prepared to increase aid to charities working on the border.

Hungary built a previous border fence in September 2015 and introduced legislation making it a crime to climb or damage it. According to Hungarian police, more than 2,200 arrests were made on the border between 1 March and 22 March of last year.