Hungary Places Youth Detention Centers Under Police Oversight Amid Abuse Scandal (Worthy News Investigation)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief reporting from Budapest, Hungary

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – A leading human rights group has condemned Hungary’s decision to place state-run youth detention centers under police oversight after abuse scandals triggered calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which assists detainees, refugees, and “victims of violence committed by law enforcement agencies,” told Worthy News the move “is merely a stopgap measure and will not improve the crisis situation.”

Opposition leader Péter Magyar, head of the fast-rising Tisza party, urged Orbán to step down after leaked security camera footage appeared to show the mistreatment of minors by staff at a state-run detention center in Budapest.

The footage, published by opposition activist and former lawmaker Péter Juhász, has already led to the resignation of the center’s acting director this week.

ABUSE ALLEGATIONS SPARK POLITICAL FALLOUT

Prosecutors said two custodial officers physically abused young people, including striking their heads with a window handle.

They added that a third suspect — an employee with nearly 15 years of experience in the educational field — also participated in the abuse and allegedly assisted the former director, who is now under arrest, in the fictitious employment of victims of human trafficking.

Authorities declined to disclose the identities of the suspects or the precise charges they face, citing the ongoing investigation, but confirmed that seven people have been detained so far in connection with the case.

The scandal has dealt a severe blow to Hungary’s Social and Child Protection Directorate, which previously oversaw the Budapest facility under the Interior Ministry.

Amid the investigation, Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, said the government concluded that the current management of juvenile institutions within the social care system “was not sufficient, as it failed to prevent these crimes.”

GOVERNMENT DEFENDS POLICE TAKEOVER

Gulyás announced that Hungary’s five “juvenile correctional institutions” would be placed under direct police oversight while prosecutors continue to investigate the case.

Critics warn the move could turn child-focused facilities into adult, prison-like institutions.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee confirmed to Worthy News that a government decree issued under emergency powers transferred management of these institutions to the Hungarian Prison Service.

However, the group warned that “instead of further militarizing the system, it is essential to ensure — immediately and in the long term — the presence of qualified professionals” capable of providing psychological and pedagogical support, emotional security for children, and meaningful assistance to staff.

Magyar echoed those concerns and called on supporters to demonstrate Saturday outside Orbán’s office in Budapest’s Castle District, overlooking the capital.

MAGYAR WITH CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT

Magyar said Friday he had obtained a classified report showing that crimes committed against children under state child protection “have been hidden since 2021.”

The document was prepared for the national child protection authority and the government.

“This classified document is a 47-page indictment against the Orbán government,” Magyar said. “It was brought to me from lower levels of the government because they could no longer tolerate the government’s complicity and inaction.”

He added that over the past four years the government “knew exactly what horrors thousands of children growing up without families are facing. They knew everything — and still did nothing.”

According to the document cited by Magyar, every fifth child in state care is officially abused, while a quarter of sexual assault cases never reach law enforcement authorities.

Nearly 40 percent of guards reportedly know of at least one child who was sexually abused during grooming, Magyar added, citing the report.

CLIMATE OF FEAR REPORTED

A climate of fear among bullied children — or a slow response from police allegedly unwilling to investigate abuses — were among the reasons many cases were not prosecuted, according to the report.

In some cases, abuse was not deemed unlawful but was described as having “educational” value.

A quarter of detention wards reportedly said that in the past two years “no police proceedings were initiated in a single case of abuse in their institution,” Magyar said, referring to the report.

Worthy News was unable to independently verify the report’s authenticity, but prosecutors have also expressed concern about the extent of abuses.

Magyar launched the Tisza party last year after a scandal forced the resignation of President Katalin Novák, an Orbán ally, who had granted a pardon in a child sexual abuse case involving an orphanage.

PAST SCANDALS AND EMERGENCY POWERS

Justice Minister Judit Varga — Magyar’s ex-wife — also stepped down amid the fallout, marking one of the most serious political crises for Orbán since he returned to power in 2010.

The prime minister has long presented himself as a defender of “Christian family values,” a message critics say has been undermined by repeated child-protection failures.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee said the government has increasingly relied on prolonged emergency powers to manage scandals, including those involving children.

Hungary has remained under a so-called “state of danger” since May 2022, formally justified by the war in neighboring Ukraine, allowing the government to rule by decree and suspend or override existing laws without prior parliamentary approval.

However, Hungary has operated under some form of emergency governance almost continuously since 2016 — first due to what officials called “migration pressures,” then the COVID-19 pandemic, and now the Ukraine war.

RULE OF LAW CONCERNS AND EU FUND FREEZE

Human rights groups and EU institutions argue this amounts to de facto permanent emergency rule, weakening checks and balances, including safeguards against abuse.

The government rejects that assessment, saying Parliament regularly extends the measures and that all actions comply with Hungary’s constitution, the Fundamental Law.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee said “a series of harmful measures in recent years has dismantled effective external oversight and eroded the supportive institutional system,” noting that its long-standing cooperation agreement with authorities to monitor closed institutions was terminated.

The group warned that Hungary’s juvenile correctional system — which had survived more than 130 years of political upheavals — is now effectively placed under police command without adequate child-protection guarantees.

“The emergency decree is a token gesture aimed at concealing the severe problems of child protection and juvenile correctional institutions by those who have been in power for a decade and a half,” the organization said.

Critics argue that the abuse scandals, combined with Orbán’s perceived authoritarian governing style and allegations of corruption benefiting family members and political allies, have deepened public mistrust.

The European Union has frozen roughly 18 billion euros (about 20 billion U.S. dollars) in funding earmarked for Hungary over ongoing rule-of-law concerns, including allegations of corruption and pressure on independent institutions ranging from media to civil society organizations.

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