Hunger strike in Hungarian migrant detention center

Nearly 100 migrants began a hunger strike on Monday at a detention center in Hungary, demanding that they be allowed to leave, the country's immigration authority said.

The Immigration and Citizenship Bureau said 94 of the 102 migrants in the Bekescsaba camp on the Romanian border were taking part.

"Most of the hunger strikers are under Dublin proceedings as they unlawfully left the country of first entry into the European Union," the bureau told Reuters in an e-mailed statement.

"The hunger strikers signaled their demands in writing, primarily complaining about being detained and asked to be allowed to leave," it said. "They complained about being fingerprinted as they have no intention to stay in Hungary."

Legally, however, the intentions of the immigrations are of no concern to Hungarian authorities due to the fact that they are being treated and processed as illegal immigrants, due to the fact that many of them are not eligible for asylum and have violated Dublin Regulation. As such, Hungarian authorities have every right to process the immigrants.

An online plea for assistance by "Zanyar Faraj", claiming to be a spokesperson for the migrants in Bekescsaba, called for better conditions there. It said many inmates were "sick" and "depressed".

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been a vocal opponent of the wave of mass immigration into Europe, which he says threatens not only the socioeconomic makeup of the continent but its cultural heritage as well, and his government is building fences on the country's borders to prevent further influx.

Hungary is not a very prosperous country, suffering from poverty and a slow economy, so it comes as no surprise that the Prime Minister is not prioritizing foreign nationals over Hungarians; however the state has started constructing shelters for the immigrants made out of shipping containers, an extremely cheap and innovative construction material. Authorities are using the same materials to construct barracks in the southern borders.

In a previous statement, Janos Lazar, Orban's chief of staff, also said once new rules are in place, any migrants detained anywhere in Hungary without documents allowing them to be in the country will be returned across the border.

"We need a legal system that protects us. This is a very serious change," Lazar said. "We expect debates with the European Commission and other organizations."

"It is clear that the security situation in Europe has deteriorated, not improved," Lazar told reporters after a government meeting. "Turkey is presently defending the borders of Europe. We would like to strengthen the Hungarian border."

Orban says that allowing migrants in without proper checks poses a security threat, citing the fact that some of the militants responsible for attacks like those in Paris in November 2015 had posed as refugees. It is known that the Daesh is using the mass migration to get terrorists in Europe and Turkey.