In Hungary, a stricter law that effectively criminalizes the homeless has entered into force.. From now on, persons without a certain place of residence are not allowed to stay or spend the night in public places under threat of monetary fines or imprisonment, reports DW.

Under the new law, the police get the rights to drive the sleeping homeless from the streets, as well as destroy the temporary shelters they set up in the open air. Thus, the Hungarian authorities significantly tightened the law, adopted in 2013 and already then causing controversy, prohibiting the homeless to spend the night only on certain streets or squares.

According to various estimates, from 20 to 50 thousand homeless people can live in Hungary, the largest number of them are in the capital, Budapest (about 8 thousand). At the same time, the state can provide no more than 11 thousand people with an overnight stay, and the warm season is coming to an end..

Criticism of the new law by international organizations After the Hungarian Parliament adopted a new law on the homeless in June, the actions of parliamentarians were criticized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The new law, "criminalizing homelessness, is brutal and in conflict with international human rights law," the OHCHR said in a statement..

“New laws violate human rights, threaten civil society and undermine the rule of law,” says a report by the human rights organization Amnesty International on the problem of homelessness in Hungary..