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June 13 (UPI) -- The European Union's Court of Justice Thursday fined Hungary for violating EU migration and asylum law. The court ordered Hungary to pay a fine of more than $215 million dollars plus a penalty payment of $1.07 million a day, saying it failed to comply with a court judgment.
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"That failure concerned restricting access to the international protection procedure, unlawfully detaining applicants for international protection in transit zones and failing to observe their right to remain in Hungarian territory pending a final decision on their appeal against the rejection of their application, as well as the removal of illegally staying third-country nationals," the court said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reacted to the fine in a post on X, calling the decision "outrageous and unacceptable" while framing Hungary's actions as "defending the borders of the European Union."
"It seems that illegal migrants are more important to the Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens," he wrote.
The ECJ held that Hungary did not take measures to comply with a 2020 ruling regarding migrant access to the EU's international protection procedure.
The court said migrants applying for asylum in Hungary had the legal right to stay in Hungary "pending a final decision on their appeal against the rejection of their application and the removal of illegally staying third-country nationals."
The ECJ said Hungary deliberately disregarded "the principle of sincere cooperation, is deliberately evading the application of the EU common policy on international protection as a whole and the rules relating to the removal of illegally staying third-country nationals."
The court said those actions by Hungary constituted a serious threat to the unity of EU law.
Hungary's failure to comply with the law, the court said, impacts other EU member states because it has the effect of transferring Hungary's responsibilities to other member states.
