BUDAPEST: Pope Francis, on a three-day visit to Hungary, urged compassion and warned against indifference towards refugees on Saturday.
Despite the anti-refugee policies and actions of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Hungary has welcomed those fleeing the war in neighbouring Ukraine, though activists say support systems are lacking.
On Saturday, the Pope met with around 600 refugees, mostly from Ukraine, and poor people at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Budapest, thanking Hungary for welcoming them.
The pontiff also urged the need to “show compassion toward all.” He later met children with disabilities and visited the Greek Catholic community.
On Sunday, he is expected to preside over an open-air mass. The visit is Francis’ 41st international trip since becoming Pope in 2013, and his second to Hungary, where 39% of the population of 9.7 million people are Catholic.
Hungary’s relations with Russia
Despite Orban’s policies and his insistence on maintaining ties with Moscow, more than two million Ukrainians have crossed into Hungary since Russia invaded its neighbour more than a year ago, but just 35,000 have applied for the EU’s temporary protection status in the country.
Within the EU, the Hungarian prime minister is an exception in refusing to condemn Russia’s President Vladimir Putin by name after Moscow invaded. He is also refusing to send military assistance to Ukraine and has blasted EU sanctions against Russia.
Ukrainian refugees also face a “demolished” support system, according to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) rights group.
Since 2020, after the EU forced Budapest to close controversial so-called border transit zones that Brussels called “detention camps,” Budapest only accepts asylum seekers’ applications at Hungarian embassies abroad, slowing the number of asylum seekers to a trickle.
