GENEVA: UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on Thursday denounced Hungary’s treatment of refugees and migrants as “shocking,” saying its policies toward them appeared to be shaped by xenophobia and religious prejudice.

“High Commissioner Zeid deplored the xenophobic and anti-Muslim views that appear to lie at the heart of current Hungarian government policy,” a statement from his office said.

The secretary general of Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s largest body of Muslim countries, “expressed shock and dismay at the harsh and unacceptable treatment by the Hungarian police” in dispersing protesting migrants who sought to enter the country from Serbia.

Iyad Madani, who heads the 57-nation OIC, called on Hungary’s government “to respect international humanitarian law and human rights of the refugees who were in the first place forced to escape from their country due to war and grievous human rights atrocities committed against them.”