Government official says cooperation with UNHCR “necessary”

Budapest, July 15 (MTI) – Hungary has a need for cooperation with the United Nation’s refugee agency (UNHCR) in this “crisis situation”, a government official told public television on Wednesday.

In an interview to news channel M1, Istvan Mikola, state secretary for security policy and international cooperation, commented on the UN agency’s decision to expand its Budapest service centre for the High Commissioner for Refugees.

As well as being a logistics center, the institution is concerned with long-term, global regulations in connection with refugee issues, as well as being an education centre. It prepares communities on how to deal with “modern-day migration” issues and how to deal with refugee situations. However, the high commissioner is not prepared for the current, unprecedented situation either, he added.

Although there are disputes, the government and the agency are working well together in this “crisis situation” and the government is paying acute attention to the high commissioner, he said.

Besides the UNHCR, there are two major UN agencies operating in Hungary, he noted.

“We need their munitions, their cooperation so that we are able to handle new global challenges,” he said, adding that everything is being done to ensure that they “feel good” in Hungary.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters