A decree has come into force in Hungary, according to which only refugees from regions of Ukraine directly affected by the fighting are now eligible for state aid, Le Parisien writes. Ukrainians who lived in more than one of these regions immediately lose the right to Hungarian state aid, including monthly payments and free housing.
After two and a half years of conflict and tens of thousands of new arrivals, Budapest needed a ‘reasonable and proportional’ change in the law, explained Norbert Pal, the government’s commissioner for Ukrainian refugees.
Hungary has taken in 46,000 Ukrainians during the conflict – as Le Parisien notes, far fewer than its European neighbours. According to the publication, the new amendment will affect between 2,000 and 3,000 refugees. In some parts of the country, mass evictions of Ukrainians were already seen on the day of the law’s adoption, which took place under police surveillance.
At the same time, Hungary has relaxed the conditions under which Russians and Belarusians can come to the country to work. Budapest now grants them a two-year residence permit with the possibility of extending it for another three years, which could then open the way for Russians and Belarusians to permanent residence in the EU, the French newspaper explains.
EU countries were quick to express ‘deep concern’ about such decisions and urged the European Commission to ‘react.’ European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ilva Johansson asked Hungary to explain these decrees, both from the point of view of internal security ‘due to the risk of espionage’ and from the point of view of ‘circumventing the restrictions imposed by the EU on Russia’.