request political asylum in Hungary, where they were arrested near the Yugoslav border, BosNewsLife learned Saturday June 15.
Some of the, mainly male, refugees claimed to have left their homeland after receiving summonses from the Iraqi "volunteer" army, known as "Saddam’s Martyrs", which is fighting to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation, Hungarian custom officials told reporters.
Other Iraqi nationals reportedly said they had immigrated from Iraq 15 days ago where they were persecuted because of their nationality and religion. Ivan Kovacs of the Kiskunhalas Border Guard Department told Hungarian Radio that they got through the green border at (the Tompa crossing) with the help of smugglers, who abandoned them.
WANDERING IN WOODS
"They were wandering (in) the woods for two days without knowing in which country’s territory they were," Border Spokesman Kovacs was quoted as saying. The Iraqi refugees claimed to have given $2,200 to an unidentified man, promising to take them into a safe country, Hungarian News Agency MTI said.
The applications will first be judged by the Office for Immigration and Citizenship Affairs, before any final decision on their status is being made by the authorities. Since the collapse of Communism, Hungary has become a key bridge country for those fleeing religious and other persecution.
UNDER PRESSURE
In the first six months of this year over three times as many illegal immigrants were caught crossing Hungary’s southern border than in the corresponding period of last year, according to official statistics.
Hungary is under pressure to improve border security, as it prepares to join the European Union by 2004. But several international organizations warned that human rights conditions of refugees must improve in the country, where many police officers were trained under the past autocratic regime.
They admit however that attitudes change slowly in Hungary where even minority citizens, including the country’s estimated 600,000 Gypsies, are reportedly suffering in prisons and hospitals.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
The Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Alvaro Gil-Robles, told BosNewsLife that the Gypsies, who prefer to be known as Roma, have often no access to education, the medical system and the workplace.
"The Government must push for equality and non discrimination of the Roma minority and for everybody in the country," said Gil-Robles, who will soon present his rapport to the Council of Europe Ministers.
However several refugees and minorities are supported by Christians and foreign missionary workers of several congregations, including the International Church of Budapest, which was founded shortly after the democratic changes began in 1990.
