Thousands of Ukrainian refugees face eviction from Hungarian state-funded accommodation in a move by Budapest that human rights activists say could contravene EU law.
ADVERTISEMENTA Hungarian government decree amending rules on support for refugees fleeing war in Ukraine means thousands face being turfed out of emergency accommodation – and evictions have already begun, according to human rights advocates.
Under the decree issued in June, as of today (21 August) only refugees from parts of Ukraine deemed to be affected by conflict are now eligible for free housing from the Hungarian state. There are currently 13 regions on the list, none of them in the westernmost part of the country.
This leaves several thousand Ukrainian citizens, notably from the western Transcarpathia region that borders Hungary and where Hungarian is widely spoken, facing the prospect of being turned out of their accommodation – and either lacking the means to return home or unwilling to do so as the war grinds on.
According to the UN’s High Commission for Refugees, there were just over 46,000 Ukrainian refugees registered for temporary protection in Hungary at the end of last month, a status accorded to them under European legislation invoked shortly after the invasion on 24 February 2022 that gives them the right to reside in an EU member state.
The bulk of the displaced persons are either paying for their own housing or staying with friends, family or volunteers, but the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights group, estimates that some 4,000 who lack sufficient means have been staying in state-funded accommodation, of whom as many as 3,000 are no longer eligible.
The evictions have already started, said the group’s head of advocacy András Léderer, speaking to Euronews by phone from Kocs, roughly 70km west of the capital Budapest. Some 120 refugees, two-thirds of them children, were turned out of their temporary accommodation in the village this morning, he said.
“These people are just standing around, they have nowhere to go,” Léderer said this afternoon. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee believes the Hungarian governments actions are illegal under EU law.
“We have submitted a formal complaint with the Commission in July, following the introduction of these changes. Beneficiaries of temporary protection, under EU law, must be provided with accommodation by the state,” the human rights activist said.
“This is yet another example of a clear-cut breach of EU law committed by Hungary,” Léderer said, adding: “To date, no response was received."
The European Commission said it was examining a request from Euronews to clarify its position on the developments and the complaints filed by the NGO.
The Hungarian government decree has particularly impacted Roma refugees, according to the Hungarian independent news website telex.hu, which reported yesterday that the often marginalised ethnic group accounts for the majority of refugees from Transcarpathia that stayed in Hungary.
Within a fortnight of Russian troops pouring over the Ukrainian border on 24 February 2022, the EU Council activated the 2001 Temporary Protection Directive, which entitles refugees from the affected area – in this case ‘Ukraine’ – to the right to reside, opening up access to services such as healthcare and education for children.
Having already done so several times, the EU executive proposed extending temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees in June – with costs largely covered by existing EU budget funds – by a further year to 4 March 2026, a move which was approved by a majority of EU member states on 25 June.
Jean-Nicolas Beuze, the UNHCR representative to the EU, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands welcomed the move at the time, saying it ensured “greater certainty for refugees from Ukraine” by granting them continued residence.
“Although of a temporary nature, this protection guarantees to more than 4.2 million refugees from Ukraine residency, access to public services and to the labour market of host countries for another year,” Beuze said.
ADVERTISEMENTThere are currently 4.19 million displaced persons covered by the scheme across the EU, according to the Commission’s proposal – with over 1.2 million in Germany and almost 1 million in Poland and 400,000 in Czechia, dwarfing the numbers in Hungary, and a likelihood of more to follow in the coming months.