Near the border with Ukraine, Hungarians mobilize to welcome the displaced

Julia Dumont, special correspondent in Zahony, Hungary.

These are very small towns, even villages of a few hundred inhabitants, who did not expect to find themselves at the heart of the news. Since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24, Ukrainians and foreigners living in the country have begun to flock to Hungary, mainly through the three main border crossing points (Zahony, Beregsurany and Tiszabecs ), a hundred kilometers long.

In a few days, the surrounding municipalities have set up a whole logistics system to allow the exiles to take shelter and regain their strength, before returning to Budapest. Of the approximately 1,200,000 people who have already fled Ukraine, nearly 145,000 have entered Hungary, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

>> To read: “We are happy to be here, alive”: in Hungary, the first steps of the displaced from Ukraine far from the war

In Beregsurany (640 inhabitants in 2008), the cultural center has been transformed into a reception centre. This large light yellow building now serves as a storage place for foodstuffs, as well as for hygiene and baby products that Hungarians from all over the country have brought to help the arrivals in their own way.

A few days ago Attila Tozsarigo posted a message on his Facebook account to collect business. In two days, this history teacher, who lives 200 km from Beregsurany, received food, diapers and even seven pushchairs for the displaced. He loaded his car and drove to bring it all to the cultural centre, he explains in the small courtyard at the back of the building, as a new Ukrainian family gets out of a van.

Volunteer drivers

Several times a day, people who have arrived at the border post are brought here by car. They can rest, eat and charge their phone in the main room of the building or in the two containers placed in the courtyard. About 100 cots have also been set up in an adjoining gymnasium in case some need a little sleep, or spend the night.

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Maria, 18, and Yana, 16, arrived Thursday, March 3, around 5 a.m., in Beregsurany. Both from the city of Zhytomyr, they met in the center and plan to continue their journey to Austria with their families.

Maria left Zhytomyr by bus with her mother, her sister and her dog Luna whom she strokes on her knees while talking. On her phone, she shows the images of the city devastated by the bombings that she filmed from the bus. After a night’s rest in the gymnasium, she and her family are waiting to find a way to reach Zahony to take the train to Budapest.

In the courtyard of the Maison de la culture, volunteers from the Order of Malta in red vests manage the organization of departures to Zahony and other towns. “People fill out forms with their name and the place they want to go. We sort them by destination and then put people in contact with volunteer drivers who come to offer to make a trip”, explains one of them.

Go to Zahony station

About forty kilometers further north, people arriving from Ukraine can cross the Lonya border post on foot or by car. They are then collected by relatives or by volunteers who come on this road to take them to the reception center of this village of 800 inhabitants. Thursday morning, a car stops at a woman walking along the road. Pulling a suitcase in one hand and carrying a cat basket in the other, she burst into tears in the arms of the driver as she exited the vehicle. On the rear windshield of the car, the word Ukraine followed by a heart had been drawn.

A five-minute drive away, the Lonya Visitor Center is full of busy volunteers. As in Beregsurany, a regular ballet of cars comes to drop off people picked up at the border in front of the building. The center is full of food and hygiene products. Upstairs, twenty beds have been installed. “We are in contact with charities who can offer more accommodation if needed,” said Toth Tamas, one of the volunteers.

But the most urgent thing is to allow people to join Zahony.

The small town of Zahony (about 4,000 inhabitants) thus became, in a few days, the main transit point between Ukraine and Hungary. Here, too, a shelter has been opened in the town’s technical high school to have enough space.

Since February 28, the students have left the premises and are now taking their lessons online. Within days, the gymnasium and classrooms were transformed into dormitories. Thursday, March 3, the place welcomes about 250 people. Galina arrived the same day with her 4-month-old son Ignat. She rests for a few hours before hitting the road again, heading for Germany where she has relatives.

“I have never felt so useful in my life”

Here, as in all the other centers in the region, the organization relies 100% on the local community. “You can’t imagine the number of people who are involved”, underlines a high school teacher who participates very actively in the reception but does not want her name to be published. Able to speak Hungarian, English, Russian and Ukrainian, she quickly became essential to the functioning of the center. “I’ve never felt so useful in my life, she slips. But I’m exhausted, I’ve been sleeping 4 hours a night for days. During the day, I give my lessons and then I come to help at the center or else at the station.”

English speakers are a precious resource for the reception centers because if the first Ukrainians to arrive, at the end of February, very often spoke Hungarian, being from the border region of Transcarpathia, this is no longer the case now. English is useful for giving displaced people information on transport and administrative procedures.

In particular, it is necessary to explain to Ukrainians who arrive without passports that they will be taken to Cigand, about forty kilometers away, to obtain a pass from the Hungarian immigration services.

The mobilization of the Hungarians is admirable, but how long will it last? According to United Nations projections, some 250,000 people may have reached Hungary in the coming months. Volunteers will not be able to manage all the displaced on their own. Some, like Toth Tamas, will eventually have to go back to school or work.

In Zahony, Mayor Laszlo Hemeczi is already exhausted. In the lobby of the city’s reception center, he says, white as a sheet: “I can’t sleep anymore. Just look at my face to see how I feel”.

For days, he has been coordinating the humanitarian aid the city needs and regularly posts calls on Facebook to provide what is missing. For the moment, the system is still working but the city councilor warns: “We are alone. We will not be able to continue like this for long”.