Prague is offering refugees with Hungarian passports a free train ride to Hungary and has asked Budapest to quickly provide information on whether Ukrainian refugees in Czechia have dual citizenship with Hungary, the agency reported. Czech press.
The issue was discussed in a phone call on Thursday between Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (STAN) and Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pintér.
The move was prompted by claims by the Czech Interior Ministry that Roma with dual Hungarian-Ukrainian nationality were entering the country from Hungary rather than Ukraine to seek help.
Rakušan asked Budapest to carry out a quick and thorough background check on arrivals to determine their citizenship status, as Hungarian citizens are not eligible for assistance in the Czech Republic.
From Monday 16 May, Czechia will require applicants for temporary protection and access to financial assistance worth €200 to present a stamp in their passport proving that they have crossed the Ukrainian border.
Among those who come to the Czech Republic, there are also Hungarian-Ukrainian citizens who have lived in Ukraine and fled the war. They are often denied assistance in Hungary because of their Hungarian passports. Moreover, some 20% of Roma in Ukraine have no identity papers.
Rakušan said a meeting on speeding up and streamlining the process would soon take place between the director of the Hungarian foreign police and the Czech police chief Martin Vondrášek.
In 2011, the ruling Fidesz party introduced a new simplified route to acquiring Hungarian citizenship for ethnic Hungarians living outside the country, making it easier for many ethnic Hungarians to obtain a second passport. , including Roma, living in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Roma who fled Ukraine – often with Hungarian as their mother tongue – find more difficult for help than ethnic Ukrainians in Hungary.
“Among refugees with Hungarian nationality, we see growing impatience and dissatisfaction with the lack or difficulty of access to the services and benefits provided on paper by the legislation,” said Zsolt Zádori, press officer of the Hungarian Committee for Helsinki, at EURACTIV.
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