Debrecen refugee camp extension in progress

The Debrecen refugee camp needs an urgent capacity extension, as currently 1474 refugees and asylum seekers are staying there, however it is designed to provide only 830 immigrants with shelter, index.hu reported.

Apart from a building complex appropriate to shelter a hundred families in viable circumstances, the already accepted extension project includes the construction of a container camp that can accommodate three hundred refugees if necessary.

In the first five months of 2015, the Office of Immigration and Nationality Regional Directorate of Northern Lowland carried out a procedure in the case of 31 327 asylum seekers, but the office found only twenty of them eligible for refugee or protected status, and fifty-four of them for subsidiary protection. In the case of the vast majority of the immigrants (65-70 %), the directorate could not finish the investigation procedure, because the asylum seekers disappeared.

Zsolt Harahi, the regional director of the immigration office, told MTI that some 100-150 refugees arrive to the camp daily, this is why it is an urgent need to extend the area.

Referring to the situation in Debrecen, Róbert Rácz, member of the national assembly, told MTI that the immigration office and the police “are in control of the situation.” The office has not received any public complaint concerning refugee issues recently, he added.

Earlier in May, PM Viktor Orbán said that the camp would not be further developed or expanded, and confirmed that his government would seek to close the camp instead. “What Hungary wants, is for no more of them to come, and for those of them who are here to go home,” declared the prime minister in Debrecen.

Obviously, his government’s position has changed since May, as the camp extension has already started.

based on the article of index.hu
translated by Gábor Hajnal

Source: index.hu