It has come to our attention (propeller.hu) that on 27 October, 2013 there were racist violent attacks against a refugee in Bicske, Hungary. The official website of the police also released a statement about the criminal acts, with the headline, that the suspects are in the hands of the police (police.hu). The statement of the police then contradicts itself by concluding, that two men are suspected with breaching the peace with arms, and they were set free by the police.

However, based on the information available, there is a reasonable suspicion that the two attackers were armed and they committed the criminal offence of “violence against a member of a community”, a hate crime which can be punished by 2-8 years of imprisonment. We emphasize that all refugees have the legal right to seek asylum in Hungary, express our solidarity with them and remind that under international law, Hungary is obliged to provide respectable living conditions for all asylum seekers and refugees.

We are informed that the area where the attacks happened are recorded with public cameras, therefore we are asking the police to use these recordings during the investigation, and to prevent the racist attackers from committing hate crimes again, initiate the pre-trial detention of the suspects. Migráns Szolidaritás is calling on Hungarian authorities to fully investigate the incident that took place last Sunday.

We trust that the local police is doing everything to find out what was the course of actions that led to the violence, and that the Hungarian authorities denounce this. Budapest, 31 October, 2013 Migrant Solidarity Group