EU Court Rules Orbán-Government Broke Law Over Mass Amnesty for Human Traffickers

Hungary violated EU law by automatically converting the sentences of individuals who had been convicted of human trafficking into “special reintegration detention,” which in practice meant the release of the convicts and their expulsion, the EU court ruled on Thursday.

In its ruling, the Luxembourg-based court upheld the European Commission’s lawsuit against Hungary. It found that Hungarian legislation did not ensure the effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions required by EU law.

#ECJ: #Hungary breached #EUlaw by converting final prison sentences for human trafficking into “special reintegration detention” https://t.co/3LzXGAwHPq

— EU Court of Justice (@EUCourtPress) October 15, 2026

As Hungary Today reported, in 2023, Hungary adopted a government decree stipulating that the punishment for individuals sentenced to imprisonment and deportation for preparing or committing human trafficking would automatically be converted to “special reintegration detention.” Those affected were required to leave the country within 72 hours of their release and were prohibited from returning to the country for the duration of their sentence.

The decree was repealed on August 19, 2025; however, during its implementation, 2,525 individuals were placed in “special reintegration detention.”

The European Commission found that the regulation created a systemic risk that crimes related to facilitating illegal immigration would go unpunished and that it undermined the effectiveness of the EU’s immigration and border control policy. According to the Commission, by adopting the government decree, Hungary violated its obligation under EU law to impose effective, dissuasive, and proportionate sanctions, and it filed a lawsuit with the court seeking a declaration of infringement.

In its judgment, the court emphasized that “special reintegration detention” cannot be considered an effective sanction, since the prison sentence imposed by a final judgment was not actually enforced; it was replaced by an obligation to leave the country and a temporary ban on re-entry.

According to the court, the measure also lacked a deterrent effect, as those involved in human trafficking could count on the fact that, if apprehended and convicted in Hungary, they would at most be expelled from the country and barred from returning for a certain period of time.

The court also found that the measure did not meet the requirement of proportionality, as the release of those concerned occurred automatically, without an individual assessment of the circumstances of the crime or the offender’s personal situation.

The judgment added that the mere fact that the ban on re-entry into Hungarian territory lasts as long as the prison sentence imposed is not sufficient to satisfy the requirement of proportionality.

The Luxembourg court also found that Hungary had violated its EU obligations because the regulation was applicable even to serious crimes for which EU law requires a prison sentence of at least eight years. Such offenses include, for example, intentionally facilitating the entry of non-EU citizens into a Member State or their transit through it, if committed for financial gain, as part of a criminal organization, or in a manner that endangers the lives of those involved.

Via MTI; Featured photo: Wikimedia Commons

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