Working environment

UNHCR opened an office in Budapest, Hungary, in 1989 when the country, as the first in the Central European region acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention. Initially, the UN Refugee Agency´s activities focused on assisting the government in creating its national law to implement the 1951 Geneva Convention and building up the institutional structure. The agency also provided support in dealing with the arrival of Romanian and Yugoslav asylum-seekers. UNHCR also conducted refugee status determination under its mandate as Hungary acceded to the 1951 Convention with a geographic limitation: it only concluded such determination procedures in case of European asylum seekers.

Following the 1998 entry into force of the asylum law that lifted the geographical limitation, the Refugee Agency’s activities have shifted towards supporting the development of national asylum legislation and institutions. In addition, UNHCR´s operation reoriented towards capacity-building programmes targeting both governmental and non-governmental actors in the field of asylum and migration. Since 1997, UNHCR in Hungary is not involved any longer in determining refugee status of non-European asylum-seekers, a task taken over by the authorities. 

According to the latest provisional figures, some 2100 people have applied for asylum in Hungary in 2010 (some 150 of whom were unaccompanied minors or separated children). 74 asylum-seekers have been recognized as a refugee and about 175 men, women and children were granted a complementary form of protection in 2010. The most important places of origin of asylum seekers were Afghanistan, Kosovo and Palestine. 

Projects and activities

In Hungary, UNHCR is involved in border monitoring through a tripartite agreement concluded in December 2006 with the Border guards and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. Both the Agreement and the cooperation based on it are regarded as good practice in Europe and have been serving as a base for similar activities in the region and beyond. The UN Refugee Agency in Hungary is strongly advocating with the Government to soften the extensive policy and practice of detaining innocent asylum-seekers upon arrival.

In order to ensure that asylum procedures are fair and efficient, UNHCR carried out an “Asylum Quality Assurance and Evaluation Mechanism” and a follow-up “Further Developing Asylum Quality” projects. The projects audited asylum procedures, monitored asylum interviews and decisions and provided advice and training to decision makers inclusive of judges dealing with asylum claims. A quality assurance manual was planned in cooperation with the Office of Immigration and Nationality. The handbook will help establish and sustain an internal review and quality assurance mechanism in the national asylum system and procedures. 

UNHCR in Hungary regularly monitors reception conditions such as accommodation of asylum seekers, inter alia, through the annual participatory field assessments as part of the Age, Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming (AGDM) strategy. Over the past years and thanks to the AGDM process which is carried out together with NGOs and the authorities, a number of improvements could be achieved in the legislative and institutional framework as well as in the quality of protection and assistance provided to refugees and asylum-seekers.

UNHCR also holds regular structured dialogues with the Office of Immigration and Nationality, where specific issues relating to refugee protection and integration as well as statelessness questions are discussed.

In the area of integration, UNHCR advocates for the revision and development of relevant economic, social, educational and employment policies and legislations in order to ensure that beneficiaries of international protection can better integrate into the Hungarian society. 

In the field of stateless protection, UNHCR in Hungary advocates for the elimination of the requirement that only people lawfully residing in the country can have access to the stateless determination procedure. The procedure, established together with a specific protection mechanism already in 2007, has made Hungary a good practice country in this field. Amendments of the national law and practice are however needed to prevent and reduce statelessness and, thus, comply with the requirements articulated by the 1961 UN Convention on the reduction and prevention of statelessness.

Public information activities aim primarily at raising public awareness about the plight of seeking asylum, about reasons for flight and integration needs of refugees in the society through media relations and different internet applications. They also strive to counter xenophobic tendencies which were increasing more and more in recent years.