Hungary accused of increasing number of immigrants applying for EU funding in Ukraine | Refugees
The Hungarian far-right government has been accused of increasing the number of Ukrainian refugees it protects as it seeks EU funding to fund their well-being.
In the days leading up to the rigged elections against a united opposition bloc, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz regime – which has previously expressed hostility to what it considers to be illegal immigrants – claimed to have received more refugees fleeing Ukraine than any other neighboring country. Hungary has a population of 9.6 million.
Zoltan Kovacs, the government’s international spokesman, said Hungary had welcomed more than 540,000 people fleeing the conflict, which he said is five to six refugees per 100 Hungarians.
However, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights organization focused on helping refugees, called the statistics “misleading” and said most arrivals later traveled to other countries. The number of refugees in Hungary was much lower than the official figures, the committee stressed.
It also noted that the Hungarian government had not taken sufficient steps to inform those who had decided to remain eligible for official protection, adding that Hungary’s communication efforts had faded alongside neighboring countries. Poland and Slovakia, which has submitted online application forms for protection.
Despite the massive exodus from Ukraine, according to official data, by 27 March, only 7,749 people had applied for temporary protection status in Hungary, entitling them to social security, including housing, the right to work and education. In accordance with the EU decision about how those fleeing the Russian invasion should be treated throughout the bloc.
Márta Pardavi, chairman of the Helsinki Committee, said that the relatively small number of applicants showed that many refugees were only passing through Hungary, while others had difficulty obtaining information about their rights.
“The number of people arriving at the border doesn’t mean anything about how many stay longer than the time it takes to transit through Hungary,” he said. “In reality, there are far fewer Ukrainian refugees in Hungary.
“The Hungarian government is using additional EU funding to find the most effective funding possible. In reality, however, it has to offer a much smaller number because a large number of Ukrainian refugees are moving to other countries.
“It’s like counting the number of people going to the clothing store and then telling the business owner that this is the number of your customers – but there is a big difference between people entering and buying goods. In fact, getting protected status is not easy. received it. “
Orban, who has declared that “everyone fleeing Ukraine will find a friend in the Hungarian state” wrote To the European Commission on 18 March and asked for funding from its Recovery and Survival Facility to help cope with the influx of refugees, which he estimated at 450,000 at the time.
No decision has been made on the application.
The Orban government has long been in dispute with the EU over the suspension of funding as a punishment for violating EU rule of law procedures, as Brussels has already done. € 7 billion (£ 5.9 billion) in Covid grants were frozen For Hungary.
Speaking to the Guardian in his office near the Hungarian parliament, Kovacs said he did not know how many refugees there are in the country. “Many of them have a biometric passport, which means they have visa-free travel in the area European Union“he said.” We can only contact those who are seeking refugee status or asylum. “
In addition to applicants for protected status, 80,000 had applied for a 30-day temporary residence permit, he said.
When asked to explain the difference between these figures and the much higher number of arrivals, he said: “Many of those who have come Ukraine come knowing that they have relatives, friends all over Europe and they try to spend time with them until the war is over.
“The Hungarian state will do everything we have agreed with a united European opinion.”
Pardavi said that some still stay in hotels in Hungary at their own expense. Many had not applied for EU protection status because they were unaware of it, while applicants have to wait up to 45 days for the process to be completed. In the meantime, welfare is provided by charities and NGOs, he said.
In the Czech Republic – which, unlike Hungary, already had a large pre-war Ukrainian foreign community but no border with Ukraine – the authorities have issued more than 242,000 temporary visas to refugees and estimate the total number of internally displaced persons at 300,000, well below the Hungarian average. entry figures. . More than 240,000 are already registered with the Czech state health insurance. The Czech Republic is also seeking EU funding to address the crisis.
Poland has frozen £ 30 billion in EU pandemic recovery funding in a long-running rule of law dispute. But the country’s disagreements with Brussels have begun to fade into the background as its humanitarian efforts to help refugees and expressions of solidarity with Ukraine have earned praise. To date, Poland has received more than 2 million people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine The Polish government has said it will spend € 2.2 billion this year alone to support them. Warsaw is demanding the release of pandemic funding and other sources of EU compensation.