Hungarian Roma refugees from Ukraine do not receive allowances in the Czech Republic!
The Czech Minister of the Interior, Vít Rakusan, highlighted that Roma people who speak Hungarian and are fleeing Ukraine should not expect help, aid, or allowances from the country if they show their Hungarian passports. He added that these people would get neither social allowances nor temporary protection or aid. Only Ukrainian citizens are entitled to these, he concluded.
Hungarian Roma in trouble in the Czech Republic
According to index.hu, Czech authorities faced the problem of double citizenship in connection with the Hungarian-speaking Roma community fleeing Transcarpathia, Ukraine. They have a Hungarian passport and only speak Hungarian. Thus, Czech authorities cannot communicate with them. Therefore,
Mr Rakusan believes Hungary should help them.
He stated that 1,200 Roma refugees have arrived in the Czech Republic since Russia invaded Ukraine. Among them, there are a couple hundred Hungarian Roma people.
Over 12,000 refugees arrived from Ukraine in Hungary on Thursday
MTI reported that a total of 6,666 people crossed into Hungary directly from Ukraine on Thursday, while another 5,661 from Ukraine crossed from Romania, the national police headquarters said.
Police issued temporary residence permits valid for thirty days to 1,137 people,
the police website said on Friday. Holders of such permits must contact a local immigration office near their place of residence within thirty days to apply for permanent documents, it said.
Budapest police received 907 refugees, 250 children among them, by train, according to the municipal police website. Refugees arriving on special train services at Kőbánya felső railway station, in eastern Budapest, were taken by bus to the BOK sports and events centre serving as a humanitarian transit point.
Read alsoThis is why refugees are returning from Budapest to Ukraine in large numbers
Source: index.hu, MTI
‘Ethnic Hungarians’, Roma or not, are subject to the same rules as other citizens of EU countries in The Czech Republic. The Hungarian government cannot have its cake and eat it – if people who were/are living Ukraine are Hungarian by virtue of documentation, then their welfare if they leave is not party to the refugee status afforded to others (Ukrainian passport holders) with regards to social benefits in another EU country.