While creating peace in Ukraine is a task for world powers, solidarity is everyone’s responsibility, and one that Hungary will continue to shoulder, the state secretary for church and minority relations told a meeting organised by the UNHCR in Budapest on Tuesday. At the presentation of the Hungarian chapter of the UN Refugee Agency’s regional Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework, Miklós Soltész said six Hungarian charity organisations have received 3 billion forints (EUR 7.9m) in government support for aid programmes for refugees. Private donations amounted to more than a billion forints, he said, and the UNHCR has concluded a 2.5 billion forint contract with the same charities. More than 1 million refugees have arrived in Hungary from Ukraine, and more than 500,000 of them received aid, he said. Transcarpathia Hungarians had a key role in the humanitarian effort, Soltész added.
UNHCR said in a statement that Hungarian partner organisations have requested a further 63 million dollars to continue the work. “As the war in Ukraine has entered its second year, and with millions of Ukrainians displaced both within the country and across Europe, in Hungary 37 local and refugee led organizations and United Nations agencies are appealing for $63 million to complement Government response to the needs of Ukrainian refugees in the country,” the statement said.