Hungary allows unrestricted entry from more countries than announced before

The rule applies only for business travellers and is in effect from this Tuesday, at 11 pm. The government announced before that people arriving from the United States, China, Russia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine, Singapore, Bahrein or the United Arab Emirates would be allowed into Hungary without restrictions.

According to portfolio.hu, however, based on a new decree, there are four more countries where business travellers can come to Hungary without any restrictions. 

We reported on Monday that the foreign minister and the interior minister were also compiling a list of countries from which Hungarian citizens travelling on business could return to Hungary without restrictions. Lieutenant Colonel Róbert Kiss, a member of the operative board handling the coronavirus pandemic, said later on Tuesday that Hungarian business travellers returning from the European Union, the European Economic Area and aspiring EU member states would also be exempt from the quarantine requirements mandatory for others.

It seems that the new list is the result of the work of the two ministries.

The four countries where the citizens can enter Hungary without restrictions are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.

The new list is in effect from yesterday 11 pm.

As we reported before, PM Viktor Orbán started to talk about the need for stricter entry rules at the end of February after the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic reached Hungary. Based on the original rules introduced last Saturday, relatively free travel between countries is only possible if we possess a certain document verifying the business-related objective we travel with. For this reason, many have created fake papers.

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To prevent taking advantage of this loophole, the governmental decree on travel restrictions during the state of emergency has been amended. A Hungarian citizen leaving the country for an economic or business purpose and wishing to return will be subjected to all restrictions imposed on Hungarian citizens entering Hungary. This means that everyone will be subjected to a medical check-up, but the otherwise 10-day-long quarantine

can be avoided with a negative PCR test.

On the other hand, if they travelled abroad to any of the countries listed below for an economic or business purpose and they can prove so upon returning, entering the country will not be linked to any restrictions. Here is the list of said groups of countries.

Travelling from Hungary to:

• any member state of the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA);

• a country that is not a member state of the EU or the EEA but has a multilateral agreement with these communities and possesses an equal position to EEA states;

• a candidate country to join the European Union;

• the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland;

• or to a country previously accepted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in accordance with the Minister in charge of border control.

When it comes to foreign citizens wishing to enter Hungary, changes are similar.

If you travel with a business purpose, but suspicion arises concerning the authenticity of the document certifying the objective of your trip, quarantine is applied automatically.

Aside from these decisions, the decree gives authorisation to assigned Ministers to appoint certain countries from where entry is allowed without any further restrictions, making the change on travel restrictions somewhat less harsh.

Source: portfolio.hu, Daily News Hungary