This is a summary legal analysis of the Hungarian law, Section 253 of Act XLI of 2018, which, as of August 25, 2018, imposes a special tax on migration-related activities and financing. This analysis is produced by the Open Society Justice Initiative and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and focuses on the law’s violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as the OSCE/ODIHR and Venice Commission Guidelines on Freedom of Association.

Introduction

When the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation–Tajikistan began its work in late 1996, the country was in the final months of a five-year civil war that ultimately left tens of thousands of people dead, and displaced over a million people from their homes. Against this grim background, the foundation’s initial goals were of necessity modest—to create space for debate in a country where social and political life had been turned upside down by the collapse of Soviet Communism and the ensuing bitter civil conflict.

As the stalemate continues over a common set of rules on asylum within the European Union, “externalizing,” “offshoring,” “outsourcing” and, most recently, “regionalizing” asylum and migration management in non–European Union countries remain on the agenda. So does offshoring actually work? This brief takes a comparative look at offshoring asylum and migration management in Australia, Spain, Tunisia, and the United States, and lessons learned for the European Union.

Natasha Arnpriester

Media coverage of the Rohingya humanitarian crisis has predominantly focused on the high number of refugees fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh and the devastation being wrought there this monsoon season. Yet a hidden crisis—an identity crisis—is also percolating beneath the surface of this vast encampment (which is currently the largest refugee settlement in the world).

For years, Yemen has been devastated by an armed conflict between Houthis and forces loyal to the Hadi government. A coalition led by Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is supporting forces loyal to the government. Recently, Open Society’s Soheila Comninos spoke to the Mwatana Organization for Human Rights’ Radhya al-Mutawakel about what has made this conflict so destructive.

What is it like in Yemen now?

Death surrounds us. I don’t know anyone who has not been touched by this conflict.