The Hungarian retail chain CBA has announced that it is taking action to help Fruzsina Wilhelm, the 21-year-old orphan with the mental capacities of an 8-year-old, who was living with her aunt in the Swedish city of Malmö but was threatened by the country’s immigration authority with being returned to Hungary.
Speaking at a Budapest press conference on Monday, Attila Fodor, the Hungarian-owned supermarket chain’s head of communications, said that the company is covering her approximate monthly care cost of HUF 280 000 until the end of the year and money boxes will be placed in 140 stores across Hungary together with a charity to enable the general public to contribute to settling the family’s situation. CBA will supplement donations from the public if they fail to cover costs in the long-term, Mr. Fodor said. The young woman has had a registered place of work in Sweden since September, he added.
Fruzsina Wilhelm (L) with her stepmother and aunt Ágnes Ruff following the press conference, Budapest, 5 October 2015 (photo: Noémi Bruzák/MTI)
Fruzsina’s aunt Ágnes Ruff explained at the press conference that she returned her to Sweden at her own risk one months ago after she was returned to Hungary by Swedish authorities in late August. Ms. Ruff said that she has been caring for Fruzsina for 39 months and applied for her residence permit three years ago. This would enable her care to be covered by the Swedish state, she pointed out. However, the request was rejected, meaning that the mentally disabled orphan would now have to leave the country. Branding Sweden’s procedure “inhumane”, she said that her experiences show that Swedes are also “outraged” by the case. Fruzsina’s only chace left is to apply for the so-called right of establishment enabling her free movement as an EU citizen in the possession of a registered place of work. CBA’s donation is an enormous help because she is unable to cover her niece’s care costs, she said. Being returned to Hungary, the woman, who has no living relatives in the country, would have faced a life living in an insitution for psychiatric patients.
The Hungarian supermarket chain CBA has almost 5200 stores across Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Greece, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia
via mandiner.hu
photo: Utvisad, föräldralös och förståndshandikappad/Facebook