A new European Court of Justice judgement states: 'The placement of asylum seekers or third-country nationals subject to a return decision shall be considered “detention” in transit zone Röszke, on the Serbian-Hungarian border, and therefore the detention cannot exceed four weeks'.
According to the European Court of Justice, the fact that those concerned cannot move legally in any direction from the Röszke transit zone constitutes the fact of imprisonment. The Court has ruled that, although the authorities may detain asylum seekers at the border for a maximum period of four weeks from the submission of the application, they must then be given the opportunity to enter the country and to have their application processed in accordance with the normal procedure.
In another case, the Court also ruled that the term 'safe country of transit' is contrary to EU law and that an application for asylum could not be rejected on this ground.