Hungary donating EUR 4.6 m to Christian social missions in Syria

Brussels, March 17 (MTI) — The state secretary in charge of aid to persecuted Christians said in Brussels on Monday that Hungary’s government is contributing 4.6 million euros to Christian social missions, humanitarian programmes, and the construction of a Syriac Orthodox school and a faith community centred in Syria.

Speaking to MTI ahead of an international conference in support of Syria, Tristan Azbej said he will also announce that Hungary will assist Syria’s neighbours in caring for Syrian refugees and migrants so that they can return to their home country as soon as possible.

“For the sake of Syria’s stability, we must accomplish whatever we can in the areas of politics and diplomacy,” Azbej said. He said Syrian migrants were a heavy burden on the neighbouring countries and posed a security and other social risks to the European Union. Syria’s stability, he added, was critical to the improvement of the European security environment at a time when the continent was seeing a conflict along its eastern flank and its security was threatened by migration pressure from the Middle East.

Hungary, Azbej said, believed that Syria’s new interim leadership, the EU and all international players must do everything possible to ensure conditions in Syria that allowed refugees and migrants to return there. He said Hungary had been a champion of the cause of Syrian Christians “from the beginning”. Hungary, he added, expected Syria’s leadership and the international community to do their utmost to guarantee the safety and human rights of Syria’s religious minorities, including Christians.

Over the last seven years, Hungary has spent 28 million euros on supporting persecuted Christians and the Syrian people via Christian institutions, the state secretary said. “We’re not showing solidarity to just the Syrians, including Christians, who are suffering, but also the neighbouring countries that are having a hard time coping with the burden of refugees,” Azbej said, noting the support Hungary has provided to countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Turkiye via the Hungary Helps humanitarian scheme.

As we wrote earlier, Aiding persecuted Christians ‘could be point of connection’ in Hungary-US ties, says official