The government has decided to immediately receive 400 Ukrainian children affected by the war in Hungarian camps, the State Secretary for Bilateral Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced on Saturday, reports Hirado.hu.
In a video posted on Facebook, Tamás Menczer said that an urgent request had been received from Viktor Mikita, the governor of Transcarpathia. The governor said that they are facing a big challenge in caring for internal refugees, so they have asked Hungary to help them urgently provide a two-week camp for at least 50 and up to 400 Ukrainian children.
The Hungarian government has decided that we will comply with the Ukrainian request as the Ukrainians would like it, i.e. we will accept all 400 children, if necessary, immediately for a two-week camping,”
The first group – 63 children and 36 mothers – arrives on Monday and will be accommodated in the Ministry of Interior’s education building in Miskolc, northern Hungary, where they will also be offered programs during the camp. The other groups will arrive by 20 August.
Last summer, Ukrainian children were already camping in Hungary, and it is not only during the summer that they are welcomed here. In February, children from the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia, Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian children from Mikolayiv and Kharkhiv, have been welcomed by staff and volunteers of the Rákóczi Association youth camp located in the picturesque hills of Eastern Hungary’s Sátoraljaújhely. Hundreds of children of different nationalities have shared in activities aimed at offering a respite from the everyday reality of war that surrounds them back home.
The Rákóczi Association was founded in 1989, and seeks to use its potential to serve the Hungarian people of the Carpathian Basin and the world to promote Hungarian culture, language, and communities. Many of the organization’s activities are focused on youths.
The State Secretary stressed that
although this was an unexpected and immediate request, the government has been holding camps for Ukrainian children for years.
This summer we are financing and running camps for more than a thousand Ukrainian children, he added. They are not Hungarians from Transcarpathia, but are all Ukrainian children whose place of residence or parents were affected by the fighting, he underlined.
Tamás Menczer pointed out that we are helping those in need with the largest humanitarian action in Hungary’s history, and that the camping of children is an important step in this humanitarian aid.
Source : Hungary Today
