Thousands of Ukrainian refugees could end up on the streets or be forced to return to Ukraine because of the law that came into effect in Hungary. The new regulations limit aid to Ukrainians, so only those coming from areas of Ukraine directly affected by the Russian invasion will be entitled to it.
Hungarian authorities included 13 Ukrainian regions on that list, and the government of this European Union member country will publish a new list every month. The list currently includes Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporozhye, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, Kiev Oblast and Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
It is not yet known how many of the total 31,000 Ukrainian refugees in Hungary will be at risk due to the entry into force of the new laws. The most vulnerable are Roma from the western Transcarpathian region, who currently live in shelters, which will now be closed, human rights activists warn. Their position is even more complicated due to the fact that many have both Ukrainian and Hungarian citizenship. Therefore, they cannot request asylum in other EU countries.
