The must-have newsletter about Hungary

SZIJJÁRTÓ: 240 HUNGARIANS TO RETURN FROM NORTH AMERICA ON THURSDAY

 

Altogether 240 Hungarians stranded in the US and Canada due to the new coronavirus pandemic will be flown home on Thursday, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told MTI. The planes arriving from Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Toronto will also bring 28 nationals of neighbouring countries: 17 Slovaks, 10 Slovenians and a Croatian, Szijjártó said. He noted that the Hungarian government has already helped some 6,000 stranded people return to the country. There are still some 2,000 Hungarians worldwide who wish to return to Hungary, he said. The government is working to use the possibilities available to bring them home, which he said were narrowing.
Meanwhile, he noted that the government of Azerbaijan has sent 10,000 face masks to the Hungarian embassy in Baku. The donation marks another show of solidarity in Hungary’s battle against the novel coronavirus outbreak from a member state of the Turkic Council, Szijjártó said. Preparations are under way to transport the masks to Hungary so that they can be handed out to health-care workers as soon as possible, he added.
Also, the minister noted that the Hungary-Slovenia border crossings at Bajánsenye and Kétvölgy were re-opened to Hungarians and Slovenians on Thursday morning. All crossings on the Hungary-Slovenia border were closed in mid-March as part of restrictive measures to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus epidemic, Szijjártó said on Facebook. “This caused serious problems to people in the Rábavidék and Muravidék regions because many of them had been commuting to the other side of the border and many of them have vineyards in the neighbouring country,” he said. “At their request, we are reopening the border crossings at Kétvölgy and Bajánsenye … so they can do the spring works necessary for the autumn harvest,” he added.