A Government Decree entering into force next month establishes a National General Directorate for Immigration (Országos Idegenrendészeti Főigazgatóság) under the management of the Police, which will be responsible for immigration and asylum-related tasks.
The operation of the General Directorate for Immigration will be governed by the Police Act. According to Sections 1(1) and 1(2)(20) of the Police Act, as amended by Act XXXV of 2019, immigration and asylum tasks now come under the responsibility of the Police.
The General Directorate for Immigration will take over responsibility from the Immigration and Asylum Office (Bevándorlási és Menekültügyi Hivatal) on 1 July 2019, according to the amended Section 7/H of the Police Act and Section 6 of Decree 126/2019. The Decree specifies that employees of the Immigration and Asylum Office shall declare in writing before July 2019 whether they wish to become members of the new authority, i.e. cease their government employee status and join the police personnel.
According to Section 30 of Decree 126/2019, the Immigration and Asylum Office cease to exist by 1 July 2019.
For further information:
- Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Report on Hungary, 21 May 2019
- AIDA, Country Report Hungary, 2018 Update, March 2019
ECRE thanks Zita Barcza-Szabó of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, AIDA expert for Hungary, for providing information for this article.
*This information was first published by AIDA, managed by ECRE.
Photo: (CC) Peter Tkac, September 2015
This article appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin . You can subscribe to the Weekly Bulletin here.