UNHCR welcomes Hungary’s reception of refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) welcomes the fact that Hungary’s borders are open to refugees from Ukraine, said Stephanie Woldenberg, UNHCR’s head of Central Europe in Beregsurány, accompanied by Secretary of State Miklós Soltész.
Stephanie Woldenberg called it fantastic that the community of the border village of a thousand inhabitants is able to take care of three to four thousand refugees a day.
He said the number of people fleeing Ukraine by Tuesday had reached two million and it was impossible to predict the extent of further escalation. If the crisis lasts longer, UNHCR will do everything in its power to support Ukraine’s neighbors in tackling the refugee crisis, he added.
UNHCR has drawn up a regional plan to deal with the crisis, he said, which includes not only helping countries bordering Ukraine, but also a special focus on the internal refugee crisis in Ukraine.
Although the UNHR has a small workforce in the area, a massive support team has been set up in the wake of the crisis, involving their emergency staff, Stephanie Woldenberg said.
Miklós Soltész, Secretary of State for Prime Minister and Nationality Relations and chairman of the National Humanitarian Coordination Council, said the government would make a first-round proposal to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Wednesday on how the organization could provide assistance to aid organizations and affected municipalities. This is all the more necessary because 200,000 Ukrainian refugees have already arrived in Hungary, and the influx of refugees is not over. This will also require additional and other international resources to deal with the crisis, he said.
He also said that the Hungarian government is already supporting the six charities involved in the care of refugees with HUF 3 billion within the framework of the Bridge for Transcarpathia program. In the framework of the Hungary Helps program alone, the government also launched ten truckloads of aid to Transcarpathia and Ukrainian settlements beyond the Carpathians, he explained.
Opening picture: MTI / Zsolt Czeglédi