‘The rule of fear is replacing rule of law’ says Amnesty

● Hungarian PM faces criticism over handling of migration crisis

Amnesty International has accused the Hungarian prime minister of “replacing the rule of law with the rule of fear” in a scathing report over Hungary’s handling of the migration crisis.

The human rights group’s report also branded a referendum due to be held this Sunday in Hungary on EU plans to make each member state accept migrant quotas a “new nadir” in the government’s “anti-refugee policy”.

Thousands of migrants have crossed, or attempted to cross, Hungary’s southern borders since the start of the refugee crisis last year, placing a huge strain on the country’s migration infrastructure, but the country’s response has come under intense scrutiny and criticism.

Hungary’s controversial anti-migrant fence strung along its southern border has triggered anger in Brussels, and now Amnesty International has accused Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, of using fear to deter people from trying to get into Hungary.

“Prime minister Orban has replaced the rule of law with the rule of fear,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s director for Europe.

“His attempts to deliberately preventrefugeesandmigrants from reaching Hungary have been accompanied by an ever more disturbing pattern of attacks on them and the international safeguards designed to protect them.”

In its 30-page report, Amnes- ty further claimed Mr Orban was using a “toxic rhetoric” that had now poisoned various levels of the government and the way the police and local asylum centres operate.

It also accused Hungary’s authorities of subjecting migrants to violence and inhuman treatment as a means of ensuring people opted against trying to cross the border.

“The government’s programme of militarisation, criminalisation and isolation has ushered in a set of measures which have resulted in violent push-backs at the border with Serbia.”

In response Hungary’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying: “The statements of Amnesty International on migration and the treatment of asylum seekers in Hungary are false and completely unfounded.”

0 Refugees crossing into Hungary face barriers both on the border and in the country itself