Government misleading the EU with the number of Ukrainian refugees to get more money?
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Hungary says that it welcomed more than 540,000 refugees. However, human rights groups claim that the government misleads the public since most people do not stay in the country. They mostly go further west to reunite with family members and relatives. Only a fraction of them settles down in Hungary.
Controversial numbers
According to The Guardian, Hungary has a far-right government that inflates “the number of Ukrainian refugees it is sheltering as it seeks to secure European funds to finance their welfare.”
The government argues that Hungary welcomed the highest number of refugees taking the country’s population of 9.6 million into account. Zoltán Kovács, the government’s international spokesperson, shared a figure that amounted to between five and six refugees for every 100 Hungarian inhabitants.
“However, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights NGO dedicated to helping refugees,
called the statistics “misleading” and said most of those arriving subsequently travelled on to other countries.
The number of refugees in Hungary was much lower than the official figures” – The Guardian wrote. Furthermore, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee argued that the Hungarian Government did not provide adequate information for those who wish to remain in Hungary. For example, Poland and Slovakia provided online forms to apply for protection.
More refugees – more funds
Not surprisingly, only 7,749 people had applied for temporary protected status in Hungary until the 27th of March. This status is required to get social welfare support, including housing, the right to work and access to education in the country. This number clearly shows that most of the refugees just passed through Hungary.
“In its quest for additional funds from the EU, the Hungarian Government uses the most impressive number it can find”
– Márta Pardavi, the Helsinki committee’s co-chair, said.
International government spokesman Zoltán Kovács said that he did not know how many refugees the country was currently hosting. “Many of them have biometric passports, which means they have visa-free movement within the European Union,” he said. “We can only have a relationship with those who apply for refugee status or asylum.” In addition to those seeking protected status,
What do you expect, culture of pigs that eating pigs.
Again. We are a TRANSIT country. Refugees arrive at our border, make for a transportation hub and then LEAVE to onward destinations. HATE TO BRING IT – there’s more cars with Ukrainian number plates in Zurich or Amsterdam than Budapest!