CJEU: Placing asylum seekers in Hungary transit zone constitutes 'detention'

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Thursday ruled that keeping asylum seekers in the transit zone on the Hungarian-Serbian border constitutes "detention". "The placing of asylum seekers or third-country nationals who are the subject of a return decision in the Roszke transit zone at the Serbian Hungarian border must be classified as 'detention'," the CJEU said. The court acknowledged that under EU directives, member states may detain applicants for international protection, but said "that detention may not under any circumstances exceed four weeks from the date on which the application was lodged". The ruling was issued in the case involving two Afghan and two Iranian nationals, who had been assigned the Roszke transit zone as temporary accommodation in 2018 and 2019 and had been staying there since.