A/HRC/44/42/Add.1 following his visit, the Hungarian authorities transferred a family with a child who had special needs from the transit zone to an open facility. The asylum authorities made the decision to ensure continuation of the medical treatment that the child was receiving from a specialist. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to know that the vulnerability of the child had been taken into consideration in this case. C. Unaccompanied and separated children and families with children 35. Under normal circumstances, the Asylum Act contains a general prohibition of detention of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, and families with children can only be detained as a last resort for up to 30 days. The Asylum Act also requires the authorities to arrange the placement of a child in a child protection institute and to request the guardianship authority to appoint a child protection guardian to represent the child. 36. However, as mentioned above, in March 2017, the Hungarian authorities adopted new legislation, Act XX of 2017 on the Amendment of Certain Acts Related to Restrictions to the Procedure Carried Out in the Areas of Border Management. The law entered into force on 29 March 2017 amending, among others, the Asylum Act (Act LXXX of 2007). Pursuant to this law, all asylum seekers, except unaccompanied children under the age of 14, must stay in a transit zone for the duration of their asylum procedure. In the meantime, amendments were introduced to Act XXXI of 1997 on Child Protection and Guardianship Administration. According to the amended law, children aged between 14 and 18 are considered capable of representing themselves and are no longer provided with a child protection guardian, but only an ad hoc guardian. In reality, the ad hoc guardian engages primarily with the child during the asylum procedure but not in general child protection. 37. Consequently, in the case of a “crisis situation due to mass immigration”, asylumseeking children with their families and unaccompanied or separated asylum-seeking children between 14 and 18 years old are deprived of the relevant safeguards with regard to the protection of children as provided for in domestic legislation. Unaccompanied children aged between 14 and 18 are deprived of protection measures, such as being housed at a child protection institution during the asylum procedure and having a child protection guardian appointed, as provided for in domestic legislation. 38. Child protection guardians are only appointed to unaccompanied migrant children under 14 years old. Such unaccompanied migrant children, including asylum-seeking children under 14 years old are placed at the Károly István Children’s Centre in Fót. Unaccompanied children aged between 14 and 18 are only placed in the special child protection system and provided with a child protection guardian after a positive assessment of their asylum application. 39. With regard to facilities that could be used to accommodate asylum-seeking families with children, the Special Rapporteur visited the open asylum reception centre in Vámosszabadi. The centre can accommodate between 200 and 300 individuals. At the time of the visit, three families with special needs were housed there, 11 individuals in total, including 5 children. Individuals housed at the reception centre were allowed to move freely within and outside the facility. The centre has a large garden, which provides a playground for the children, and is equipped with a kitchen, classrooms and a medical unit. The Special Rapporteur learned that language courses and other activities were normally provided to residents at the facility. However, owing to the fact that all three families had recently been transferred to the centre, language courses were not yet in place at the time of the visit. D. Legal aid and judicial review 40. The Special Rapporteur received testimonies from many asylum seekers who had been trying to appeal against negative administrative decisions on their asylum claims. Asylum seekers are entitled to free legal aid, as provided for in domestic legislation. 11 In reality, free legal aid is mostly provided by one civil society organization. The 11 See the Act on Legal Assistance and Act LXXX of 2007 on Asylum. 9