Hungarian Government tightens rules for refugees, the change will most affect Romani people from Ukraine
A Hungarian Government decision has taken effect to allow only those refugees from parts of Ukraine "directly" impacted by Russia's war to receive state aid. The consequence could be that thousands of refugees from Ukraine could remain homeless in Hungary or be forced to return to their homeland, according to the Russian-language website of BBC News.
The authorities in Hungary are following a list according to which just 13 of Ukraine’s 24 regions are considered “afflicted” by the ongoing war. That list includes Crimea, annexed in violation of international law by Russia in 2014.
The list is meant to be updated monthly. The BBC reports that 31,000 Ukrainian citizens have been granted asylum in Hungary, but it is not clear how many might now lose their aid.
The new rules replace a system that had been working since the beginning of Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Back then, hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the war entered Hungary.
Budapest provided thousands of Ukrainians with the right to subsidized housing and welfare. Currently those privileges are supposed to be limited to refugees from areas of Ukraine in which there is or has been actual fighting.
While the change does not mean the automatic eviction of all such refugees, as of Wednesday, 21 August all landlords stopped receiving subsidies from the state for accommodating refugees from any region not considered “afflicted” by the war. Human rights defenders in Hungary argue that Romani people from Ukraine’s Zakarpattia Oblast are likely to end up in the most vulnerable position now, many of whom live in temporary shelters.
Such shelters can now be closed if their tenants come from “unafflicted” regions. The situation of such people is made worse by the fact that some hold dual Hungarian and Ukrainian citizenship, which makes it impossible for them to seek asylum in other countries in the European Union.
The practical repercussions of the Hungarian Government’s decision immediately took effect. The European Roma Rights Centre reports that on 21 August, 120 Romani children and women from Ukraine were evicted from a residential hotel in the village of Kocs because the owner of the property no longer receives the state subsidy.
News server 444.hu reported that after spending the night in the street, the children and women were taken by bus to temporary accommodation in the city of Dorog, arranged by the Maltese Order charity organization. However, they will be allowed to take advantage of that accommodation for just one week.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee is attentively following the situation and warning that it is not clear what will happen with those refugees next or what the fate will be of the other such refugees who have been living in accommodation facilities all over the country. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is the only EU leader to maintain relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Hungarian authorities have also refused to provide military aid to Ukraine and have repeatedly spoken out against such support from the EU and NATO, the BBC reports. Hungary is also extremely unwilling to receive migrants and refugees from elsewhere in the world.
In June, the EU Court of Justice fined Hungary EUR 200 million for not upholding its verdict regarding Budapest’s decision to allow only those migrants into the country who applied for asylum through a consulate or embassy outside the EU. According to the court, Hungary is “deliberately avoiding the application of a common EU policy as a whole”, which represents an “unprecedented and extremely serious infringement of EU law”.
Hungary took a harsh stance against migration after more than a million refugees entered the country in 2015, mainly from war-torn Syria. According to EU rules, however, anybody fleeing persecution in his or her homeland has the right to apply for protection and cannot be deported back if he or she faces death, imprisonment or torture there, the BBC reports.
