Amnesty International
Hungary
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Covering events from January - December
2003
There was continued concern about the ill-treatment of Roma by police.
The detention policy concerning asylum-seekers undermined their rights and
protection. Some institutions for people with mental disabilities used “cage
beds” to restrain residents.
Discrimination against Roma
Despite government efforts to combat discrimination, particularly in the
field of education, the Roma continued to face widespread discrimination in all
walks of life, including the health services, employment and housing.
In May a newspaper using a hidden camera revealed that a hospital in
Eger, Heves county, provided separate accommodation for Romani women in the
maternity ward. In June, according to the Roma Press Centre, around 20 homeless
families squatting in an old industrial plant in Budapest were ordered to leave
the premises and threatened that if they did not their children, who were
reportedly at risk at this site, would be taken into community care. In October
the deputy director of the municipal office of Piliscsaba, Pest county, after
being presented with data on the number of Roma in the community, reportedly
stated, “Oh Lord, there are so many of them here, I wish Hitler had started his
project with Gypsies”. She was suspended and a disciplinary procedure was
initiated.
Anti-Roma prejudices remained strong among law enforcement officials.
According to the Roma Press Centre, negative stereotypes were reinforced by
some photographs in Zsaru Magazin (Cop Magazine) published by the
National Police Headquarters. In July, three young Romani women, one of them a
minor, filed a suit against the magazine after it published without their
consent a photograph of them with a caption that referred to them as
prostitutes. Warrants posted on the Internet site of the National Police
Headquarters described some criminal suspects as speaking “similarly to the
Roma, indicating that they are uneducated men” and others as being “gipsy in
appearance… typically dark skinned”.
Very few of the police officers who were suspected of ill-treatment of
Roma were successfully prosecuted and those convicted were lightly punished.
This discouraged victims from reporting abuses or filing complaints. AI urged
the General Prosecutor to investigate two incidents of police ill-treatment
which appeared to be racially motivated.
- On 13 June Cs.V., a Romani man, was stopped in his van by a police
vehicle in Valkó, Pest county. He stated that as he was slowing down he
heard what sounded like a gunshot. Cs.V. approached the police car and a
police officer reportedly pushed him face down onto the hood and
handcuffed him. Another Romani man who had observed the incident was
reportedly told by an officer: “Get out, you dirty gipsy!” The man and his
12-year-old daughter fled into the courtyard of their house pursued by the
officer who shouted: “All gypsies should be killed”. He then allegedly
pointed his gun at the girl who, as a result, fainted. Before leaving, the
officers reportedly stated that Cs.V. would not be charged if no complaint
was filed against them. In November the authorities informed AI that they
were still investigating the case.
Detention of asylum-seekers
Some improvements were reported in the conditions in detention
facilities as well as in access of asylum-seekers to the lawyers of the
Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), a local human rights organization. However,
there was continued concern about the detention policy applied to
asylum-seekers, the lack of a regular monitoring mechanism concerning the fate
of asylum-seekers at point of entry, and conditions in community shelters.
Because of inconsistent interpretation of regulations concerning
asylum-seekers and other foreign nationals, asylum-seekers in very similar
situations were treated differently – some were detained, some were not. Apart
from Iraqi and Afghan nationals, single male asylum applicants and stateless
people who had entered the country illegally were detained for 12 months
although the spirit of the law envisages detention only as a means to implement
an expulsion decision. According to HHC, no person who had been detained while
their application was being reviewed had been recognized as a refugee and only
a few were given permission to temporarily remain in the country. In a report
issued in August, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees described this
situation as “an attitude or presumption that asylum-seekers kept in detention
do not deserve international protection or alternative forms of protection”.
The conditions of detention varied. Those detained in Nagykanizsa centre
were confined to locked dormitories day and night. In some facilities pay
telephones were outside the perimeter of the detention area.
Although not recognized as refugees, people given temporary stay permits
were accommodated with many other categories of people, including convicted
offenders awaiting deportation, in community shelters located within military
bases and providing substandard conditions. Better services and conditions
prevailed in open reception centres used by recognized refugees. These centres,
unlike community shelters, reportedly had significant spare capacity in the
course of the year.
Cage beds in institutions for people with mental
disabilities
A report published in June by Mental Disability Advocacy Centre, a
regional non-governmental organization, claimed that in a number of social care
homes for people with mental disabilities cage beds were used as a method of
restraint. This is considered to be cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and
in violation of international human rights law as well as best professional practice.
The Ministry of Health, Social and Family Affairs confirmed that cage beds were
still in use and stated that this was not explicitly forbidden by law, although
their use was forbidden by professional guidelines for psychiatric hospitals.
AI country visits
In June in
Amnesty International