An Afghan man has lived in Hungary for more than 30 years, yet his residence permit was not extended
He has lived in Hungary for more than thirty years, has a Hungarian wife, and four children were born here to a man of Afghan origin, Maafi Najibullah, who, despite this, has not been able to extend his residence permit for years. First, it was classified as a risk to public safety, and later to national security. He says that despite the fact that the Court said that he does not pose a threat, he has not received an answer to his request for more than a year, writes the RTL.
The man told Hírado: for many years, he gave work to dozens of Hungarian citizens, but since the settlement permit was not extended, he had to send his people away.
At first, the settlement permit was not extended because there were several traffic violations, so according to the authority, it violates Hungary’s public safety. According to the man, none of the cases were serious enough to justify this decision, so he sued the immigration office.
After that, the court found that the man’s application was not examined professionally and annulled the official decision. However, the new procedure had the exact result: rejection due to public safety risk. Maafi Najibullah appealed to the court again, and then to the Curia, which finally stated in December 2021: the rejection decision is not in line with minor violations.
Nevertheless, in January 2022, he was already informed that
it does not pose a risk to public safety, but to national security.
Maafi Najibullah went to court again and won his third case, but the settlement permit has not been extended since then. He said he should have officially received an answer within three months, but he has been waiting for an answer for more than a year.
Zsolt Szekeres, senior legal associate of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, told RTL that the number of similar cases has increased over the past year and a half or two, “suddenly many people have become a threat to national security”. Regarding the case, RTL contacted the National Directorate General of Immigration, but they did not receive an answer to their questions.