On 21 May 2019, the Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, published a report on her visit to Hungary in February 2019. In the report, she pointed out that the government’s stance against immigration and asylum seekers has resulted in a legislative framework which undermines the reception of asylum seekers and the integration of recognised refugees. The Commissioner called on the government to repeal the decreed “crisis situation due to mass immigration” which is not justified by the number of asylum seekers currently entering Hungary and the EU and urges the authorities to refrain from using anti-migrant rhetoric and campaigns which fan xenophobic attitudes. Further, the Commissioner observed that asylum seekers are constrained to exercise their right to apply for international protection in two transit zones along the fenced Hungarian-Serbian border where very few persons are allowed to enter. She was alarmed that many asylum seekers detained in the transit zones under an alien policing procedure have been deprived of food and she urged that this practice should stop immediately. The Commissioner also called the authorities to apply alternatives to immigration detention and highlighted that the recent legislative measures imposing restrictions on civil society space have stigmatised and criminalised NGO activities which are fully legitimate in a democratic society.

On 23 May 2019, the Commissioner published a letter she addressed to the Chairwoman of the Committee on Internal Affairs and Community of the Parliament of Germany, Andrea Lindholz, in which she raises concerns about some aspects of the bill that aims at facilitating removals of people obliged to leave the country (“Geordnete-Rückkehr-Gesetz”). The Commissioner is concerned about the proposed measure that classifies information relating to the practical steps leading to a removal as state secrets, because this may result in members of civil society and NGOs being prosecuted for aiding or abetting the disclosure of confidential information. In the letter, the Commissioner expressed concern about the fact that the bill intends to expand the grounds for detention of migrants pending expulsion, instead of developing alternative measures to detention.

On 3 June 2019, the Commissioner published her written observations submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in connection with the case of Dabo v. Sweden. This case concerns the refusal to grant family reunification to the family members of a person with refugee status in Sweden, because he did not meet the so-called maintenance requirement showing sufficient income and appropriate accommodation. Because the application was allegedly filed more than three months after the applicant had been granted international protection, he could not benefit from the exemption from this maintenance requirement. In her submission, the Commissioner recalls that family reunification is an essential human right which enables refugees to resume a normal life and is crucial for their integration in the host country. In addition, the Commissioner argues that maintenance requirements, as well as short deadlines to qualify for exemptions, should preferably not be applied to persons granted international protection, and that member states should avoid keeping family separated unnecessarily.