Hungary has received the highest number of refugees from Ukraine, relative to the country’s population, with 530,587 people arriving so far, the government spokesperson said after a meeting of the national humanitarian coordination council on Monday.
Alexandra Szentkirályi told a press conference that the number of asylum requests was growing daily, with 7,947 requests submitted in little over one month.
She praised the cooperation between the Hungarian government, aid organisations, civilians and local councils, adding that they reacted to the humanitarian crisis from the very beginning.
She said that 9,794 people have been given help in the BOK humanitarian transit point opened in Budapest last week where food, drinks, medical assistance, sanitary services, internet access, child-care and travel assistance are available. National railways MÁV have so far granted 173,000 “solidarity tickets” which enables domestic travel free of charge to Ukrainian refugees.
Some 181 Ukrainian kindergarten pupils and 758 school children have started attending Hungarian institutions so far, she said.
Schools that accept Ukrainian refugee children, also offering them afternoon care five days a week, are eligible for 130,000 forints (EUR 350) extra support per child, she added.
She said that employers of Ukrainians who entered Hungary after February 24 are eligible for up to 60,000 forints or 50 percent support for the cost of accommodation and travel services if they offer them to employees.
The state secretary in charge of church and ethnic relations, Miklós Soltész, said that Hungary’s position was clearly to not allow the transport of weapons and soldiers over the border.
He thanked the work of civilians and six charity organisations assisting with refugees, adding that the latter had so far helped 265,000 people.
He added that Hungarian citizens had so far donated over 800 million forints (EUR 2.2m) under the aid scheme dubbed Bridge for Transcarpathia.
featured image via Zsolt Czeglédi/MTI
