By Tuesday morning, 178,894 people entered Hungary at one of the five border crossings with Ukraine, government spokeswoman Alexandra Szentkirályi told a press conference after a meeting of the National Humanitarian Council tasked with assessing the humanitarian situation in connection with the war in Ukraine. So far, the Hungarian disaster management authority has provided accommodation to 3,252 people, 1,780 children among them, Szentkirályi said.
Council head Miklós Soltész, who also serves as the state secretary for church and minority relations, said charity organisations have helped 81,600 people in Hungarian localities near the border, and at railway stations. Hungarian cooperation to help those fleeing from war is “exemplary”, he said.
Szentkirályi, visiting a logistics hub of the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service earlier on Tuesday in Budapest, said the government was doing all it could to protect the Hungarian people. She praised cross-border cooperation to help refugees from Ukraine involving the police, disaster relief and aid workers, local governments, government agencies, as well as volunteers. On top of support of 3 billion forints handed to six charities, the government is providing 1.35 billion in support of the Transcarpathian region as part of the Hungary Helps programme helping local communities and people who are internally displaced.
Azbej Tristan, the state secretary of the prime minister’s office responsible for helping persecuted Christians and implementing the Hungary Helps programme, reiterated that Hungary, as the first safe country, is receiving refugees from Ukraine, though it was also helping families who wanted to stay in their homeland, too. He noted that Hungary is undertaking the biggest humanitarian aid programme in its history, and he thanked the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service, the Hungarian Ecumenical Relief Organisation, the Reformed Charity Service, the Baptist Charity Service, the Catholic Charity and the Greek Catholic Diocese of Munkács for helping Transcarpathians.
hungarymatters.hu
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