Hungary appears to be taking cynical measures to cope with prison overcrowding.
Eurostat statistics show the country has the EU’s highest prison population per 100,000 inhabitants, reaching levels not seen since the Communist Era. Eight prisons were recorded at 110% of capacity in 2021.
The incidence rate of human smuggling cases within all crimes increased dramatically in the last few years, from 90 to 1476 between 2019 and 2022. During the same period, the Hungarian government faced regular accusations from the EU that its border control policy was too strict. Now, in a move which seems to exemplify the problem which Hungary has been facing, Budapest has announced that foreign people traffickers are to be expelled from Hungarian prisons without consultation with local experts or foreign states on how the ex-convicts will be traced in the future.
The decision, which is said to allow smugglers to pick up where they left off after a few weeks of absence, raises a challenge to Hungary’s critics of whether border control is a matter for the executive or the judiciary.
Critics have said that this decision jeopardises the morale of those involved in the Hungarian criminal justice system, undermines confidence in the law and puts refugees at risk. But as Hungary’s relations with its EU neighbours continue to deteriorate, Austria has imposed stricter checks on the Hungarian border on the grounds of its own internal security seeming to vindicate Budapest’s stance that tight borders are a more effective policy than the post hoc prosecution of those who break the law.
