Hungary released nearly 1,500 convicted traffickers

2023-08-23 11:10:00

The “detainees of foreign nationality” have been released from custody, the national prison authority told the AFP news agency on Wednesday. Budapest had already decided to release imprisoned people smugglers at the end of April – and justified this with overcrowding in the country’s prisons.

The EU Commission then initiated infringement proceedings against Budapest in mid-July. According to the EU Commission, however, the decree does not provide for any control by Hungary as to whether the released persons actually serve their sentences in their home countries after leaving the country. Austria reacted angrily to the announcement of the prison releases, tightened border controls and summoned the Hungarian ambassador in Vienna to the Foreign Ministry.

Serve the remainder of the sentence in your home country

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government had decided to release some of the 2,600 people arrested in Hungary for human trafficking, most of whom come from neighboring countries such as Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. The relevant government decree contains a request for those released to leave Hungarian territory “within 72 hours” after their release from prison in order to serve the remainder of their sentences in their home country.

Observers see the release as a Hungarian retaliatory measure against Brussels over the ongoing dispute over European migration policy. Hungary’s deputy interior minister, Bence Rétvári, said his country “had to make the decision” because the EU does not share in the cost of detaining human traffickers or building new prisons.