Migrant crisis: Refugees being detained in Hungary prisons

Almost 1,000 refugees, most of them from war zones in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, are detained in overcrowded Hungarian prisons or police detention cells.

As of 10 November, almost 700 had been sentenced to expulsion by Hungarian courts for crossing the razor-wire fence along its southern borders.

More than 200 others are detained, awaiting trial. Around 500 people are in asylum detention, a separate category under Hungarian law.

The Serbian government is refusing to accept most deportees from Hungary, in protest against the fence.

Nick Thorpe explains how this came about.

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