Why the EU is cracking down on Hungary’s migrant policy

We are set for another high-profile tussle between Budapest and Brussels. Yesterday the EU Court of Justice chose to impose a whopping €200 million fine on the Hungarian government for failing to apply EU asylum laws, a fine that increases by €1 million for every day the infringement continues. 

The legalities as ever were murky, but essentially Brussels’s complaint was this. EU law requires that asylum seekers be allowed into a member state to seek protection and to stay there until their claim is handled. Originally Hungary had prevented this by corralling applicants in border reception centres, until the Court decided in 2020 that this was not good enough. Subsequently, Budapest made it almost impossible to claim asylum in-state in a different way, by physically excluding would-be claimants and refusing to progress asylum claims unless the applicant had previously applied for a travel permit at an embassy abroad, for example in Belgrade.