ASYLUM : NGOS DENOUNCE EFFECTS OF RETURNING ASYLUM SEEKERS TO HUNGARY.

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The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), which represents 70 NGOs, urged the EU countries, on 25 September, to stop sending back to Hungary asylum seekers who have gone through Serbia and to examine these applications themselves.

Asylum seekers are sent back to Hungary in keeping with the Dublin system, which requires that asylum applications must be examined by the country in which the individual entered the EU. But Hungary is said to routinely refuse to examine the applications of asylum seekers who have gone through Serbia, arguing that it is for Serbia to do so.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has nevertheless declared that Serbia is not a safe asylum country and has asked its European neighbours not to send asylum applicants back to this country. According to the ECRE's figures, since 2008 Belgrade has not granted refugee status to a single applicant and has granted subsidiary protection in only five cases.

Once applications have been rejected by Serbian authorities, the domino effect comes into play...

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