After getting off the buses and registering, they can get a meal, a free SIM card and, if they wish, a train or bus ticket to take them to their next destination. If they stay, they can be accommodated in accommodation such as a school, a rented hotel room or a private house offered by a Hungarian host. “I saw these children flooding from Ukraine with their mothers; and I really felt it. [had] to do something, “said Ester Zombori-Balogh, 38, who is currently hosting eight Ukrainian refugees in a vacant apartment owned by her father. “Hungary is not considered an international refugee country because of our government. But this case is, I think, different because … it is like us.” The Ukrainian refugees who arrived in Budapest were transferred to the BOK sports hall. Once there, you can arrange bus and train tickets to other European destinations or accommodation in Hungary. (Lily Martin / CBC)
There is widespread support from the public and politicians to open the door to Ukrainian refugees entering after the Russian invasion, although there are reports that Hungary continues to push other migrants to its heavily fortified southern border with Serbia. The country’s hardline Prime Minister, Victor Orban, has been criticized by the EU and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the government’s anti-immigration policy against aspiring asylum seekers from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, but with war a little further. From its eastern border. , the Hungarian government, aid groups and individuals have mobilized to help. So when Zombory-Balogh’s father, Imre Balogh, agreed to offer his vacant apartment, his daughter began collecting donations to furnish it and provide the refugees with necessities such as clothes and food. He then went down to the train station looking for those who needed a place to stay. CLOCKS A Ukrainian mother fled to Hungary with her son:

The Hungarian mother accepts eight Ukrainian refugees

As Eszter Zombory-Balogh saw children from Ukraine flooding in Budapest, Hungary, with their mothers, she felt compelled to help. She is now hosting eight refugees in her father’s empty apartment. 1:47
He is linked to Yulia Sergeyeva, 38, who works as a human rights defender and lawyer. Sergeyeva left Kyiv, Ukraine with her six-year-old son and later reunited with her mother and 93-year-old grandmother. “It was the hardest decision of my life to cross the border; my heart broke,” Sergeyeva said. “It’s great luck to know good people like Ester and her family, for whom we are very grateful.”

A question of who will stay

More than 350,000 Ukrainian refugees have registered in Hungary, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The majority have moved to the country, with less than 10,000 applying for temporary protection – a name that would ensure children are fit for school and families can access the healthcare system. But András Léderer does not think that temporary protection applications are a good indicator of how many refugees have remained in Hungary. He is in charge of defending the human rights organization Helsinki Hungarian Commission and says that when he and his colleagues visited refugee shelters, most did not know they could apply for the program. “I think there is this calculation that if you do not allow people to enter the temporary protection system, they will go to other EU Member States and ask for protection there,” he said. András Léderer is a member of a human rights organization in Hungary. He says the country’s response to humanitarian aid is very different from when it closed its borders to asylum seekers in 2015. (Briar Stewart / CBC)
However, he says the government’s response to the crisis is very different from 2015, when Hungary closed its border and stranded hundreds of migrants on the Serbian side of the fence. In the years that followed, the government made anti-immigrant advertisements, but now officials are urging Hungarian citizens to do their part to help Ukrainian refugees. The difference in the messages is strong. But András Kováts, director of the Hungarian Association for Immigrants Menedék, says it is understandable, given that Ukraine is a neighboring country and Hungary is one of its first safe havens. While Syrians are also fleeing the war, Kováts said there is a debate in Hungary about whether they were legal asylum seekers because they could have applied for protection in other countries from which they had to travel, such as Serbia. He admits, however, that race and religion were also obvious factors.
“The closer you are to how you look, how you behave, how you dress, the easier it is to feel sympathy, to feel empathy,” he said. “That’s how people work everywhere.”

Elections on the horizon

The language used by the Hungarian Prime Minister, meanwhile, was far more controversial than the nuances of political identity. In 2018, he told a German newspaper that the migrants gathered near the border fence were “Muslim invaders”. Orban, who is facing elections on April 3 and is seeking his fourth consecutive term, has insisted that Hungary remain neutral when it comes to the next-door war, but will help refugees. Roma children play outside a former nursing home in Budapest after fleeing Ukraine. (Lily Martin / CBC)

The challenges facing Roma refugees

This offer of assistance was extended to Roma refugees who fled Ukraine. Although the cultural group has faced long-term discrimination, Hungarian social worker Tamás Szűts says no one asks about the nationality of refugees when they leave donations to the home where he works. In this vast courtyard in a Budapest neighborhood, dozens of children are running on the grass while others are doing scooters and tricycles. Until a few weeks ago, there was a nursing home here, but in February the 16 residents were evacuated and seven families from western Ukraine were relocated. All the people living in the house are Roma and, while speaking Hungarian, face a number of other challenges, as many are illiterate, come from poverty and are discriminated against. Of the 53 people who live there, 32 are children and have just started going to a nearby school run by a Lutheran church. , Thirty-two of the refugees living in a nursing home are children. They go to the school next door. (Lily Martin / CBC)
Szűts was hired to help mothers and children adjust to life in Hungary and works for everything from completing government documents to providing dental care. All shelves are lined with donations, including medicine and food. All the toys in the yard also fell. He says the response from the public has been moving, especially considering that the refugees have not received much support in the past. “They do not care,” he said of the donors. “They just come here and help and that’s it. So it’s a very, very nice time.”