Hungary's government makes Ukrainian refugees homeless

The photos taken on Wednesday in the village of Kocs in northwestern Hungary are an uncomfortable sight: They show small children asleep on bags; women sitting on suitcases, fold-up chairs and the ground by the roadside; tired, bewildered faces; and a police officer watching to make sure that the children don't run out onto the street.

The people in the photos are Ukrainian refugees. On Wednesday morning, just under 100 of them — almost all women and children — were forced to leave their accommodation and ended up on the street. From one day to the next they were homeless.

Representatives of Hungarian NGOs tried in vain to find emergency accommodation for them the same day. The refugees spent the night outside, and the NGOs continued their search on Thursday.

Drastic cut in state support for Ukrainian refugees

In June, Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed a decree that slashed state support for some Ukrainian refugees in the country. Now that the decree has come into effect, the threat of becoming homeless hangs over the heads of more than 3,000 Ukrainian refugees like the sword of Damocles.

In accordance with the decree, only those Ukrainian refugees who come from combat zones in Ukraine — in other words from parts of the country that are directly impacted by the war — will in future get state support for temporary accommodation. Eligibility will be determined on the basis of each refugee's current registered address in Ukraine.

From now on, state support for refugee accommodation will be limited to the end of the month after the date of the person's registration as a refugee in need of temporary protection. The Hungarian government intends to revise its list of combat zones in Ukraine every month.

People from one Ukrainian region particularly affected

Hungarian NGOs estimate that over 3,000 Ukrainian refugees will lose access to state-subsidized accommodation as a result.

Most of those affected come from Zakarpattia Oblast (Transcarpathia) in the far west of Ukraine or from other western Ukrainian regions. They have officially been given the status "in need of temporary protection." Most of them are Hungarian-speaking Roma.

The evicted refugees in Kocs had been staying in a privately run guest house until state support for their accommodation ran out on Wednesday.

'Reasonable and proportionate' restrictions

Norbert Pal, government commissioner for persons fleeing the Russian-Ukrainian war to Hungary, defended the restrictions on state support as "reasonable and proportionate" after two and half years of war.

He told the pro-government Magyar Nemzet newspaper in early July that "those who wanted to get back on their feet in Hungary have been able to do so."

Gergely Gulyas, minister of the prime minister's office, said on Thursday at a press conference that it is "unacceptable" that there is "abuse" of the system that sees the state paying a lot of money every month for people who are capable of working. He did not explain what form this "abuse" takes.

'A low point in Hungary's migration policy'

Representatives of the NGOs that are helping the homeless refugees reject the government's reasoning.

"In saying this, they are asserting that the people affected by this are themselves to blame for not finding accommodation," Andras Lederer, of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, told DW. "The fact is that in many of the families involved, the men are working somewhere. Nevertheless, the families cannot afford to rent a flat or simply can't find one."

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has been supporting refugees by providing legal advice and other assistance for many years.

Lederer said that the recent decree and the situation of the evicted refugees is "a new low in Hungary's migration policy" and that the way the Hungarian state is behaving is a "disgrace and an outrage" because the people affected are not only from a country that is at war, but also have been given the status "in need of temporary protection."

"So, it is in breach of Hungarian and international law to remove their accommodation and put them on the street," he said.

Hungary's anti-Ukrainian, pro-Russian stance

This decree is one in a long list of anti-Ukrainian measures taken by the Orban government. Hungarian-Ukrainian relations have been extremely poor for many years and have deteriorated even further since the start of Russia's all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022.

Hungary is the only member of the EU to remain on cordial terms with Russia. After Hungary took over the EU's rotating presidency on July 1, Viktor Orban visited Russian President Vladimir Putin straight after visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Orban's self-declared "peace mission" to Moscow was met with consternation and condemnation from the EU.

Hungary does not contribute to the military aid being supplied to Ukraine and refuses to allow weapons to be supplied to Ukraine via its territory. It is also the only EU country not to contribute to the bloc's financial aid for Ukraine.

Orban has called for an end to EU sanctions against Russia and has repeatedly called Russia's aggression a "Slavic fratricidal war" and referred to Ukraine as a "no-man's land."

Is the government targeting Roma?

Many are perplexed by the decree, especially as Orban has in the past repeatedly emphasized the importance of protecting Hungarian minorities in neighboring countries, including Ukraine.

His government has previously described this protection as important and justified it by claiming members of the Hungarian minority in western Ukraine were subject to what Orban calls "forced conscription." However, this is not the case; recruitment is proceeding normally, and representation of the Hungarian minority in the Ukrainian armed forces is not disproportionately high.

It is possible that the motivation for the decree is the fact that the majority of those in need of protection are Hungarian-speaking Roma from western Ukraine.

Orban and members of his government have repeatedly made discriminatory statements, both direct and indirect, about Romani people in the past. For instance, when speaking about Roma or at Roma events, the prime minister has said that "everyone should have to live off decent work" and that "no one can be allowed to live off crime" — allusions to negative stereotypes about Roma.

More than just a cost-cutting measure

Staff at the Hungarian Helsinki Committee say they don't know what the motivation for the decree is, but they doubt that it has anything to do with saving money.

"The monthly cost of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees is about €1 million," Zsolt Szekeres of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee told DW. "This year's fireworks display on the national holiday on August 20 cost five times that."

He says that the committee instituted proceedings against the decree and informed the relevant EU bodies. Szekeres says that the Hungarian courts have yet to pass judgment. There has been no response from the EU so far.

"So, it must be said that the Hungarian government is once again intentionally provoking a humanitarian crisis situation by making several thousand people who are in need of protection homeless."

Adapted from the German by Aingeal Flanagan