BUDAPEST, June 30. /TASS/. Hungary, like some other EU countries, opposes the European Commission's intention not to grant refugee status to Ukrainian men of military age, Prime Minister Peter Magyar told parliament.
The issue was raised during a debte by leader of the opposition Our Homeland Movement Laszlo Toroczkai, who noted that the European Commission had proposed to strip newly arriving Ukrainians fit to participate in military operations of temporary protection in the European Union. This could also apply to ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, who, according to the deputy, "are being sent to fight at the front a thousand kilometers from their homeland."
"At the meeting of the EU Council on Internal Affairs, our Interior Minister Gabor Posfai as well as representatives of six or seven other states, clearly and firmly stated that we do not support this proposal of the European Commission," Magyar replied.
He said that not all decisions and initiatives of Brussels are successful, and the proposal on Ukrainian refugees will still be discussed.
"But whatever happens, it will not prevent the Hungarian state from granting refugee status to our Hungarian compatriots, our brothers and sisters in the nation, who will come to Hungary fleeing war and conscription," Magyar said.
The current EU Directive on temporary protection, which guarantees Ukrainians the right to work, live and study in the community, expires in March. At the request of Kiev, which does not have enough people for mobilization, the European Commission has recently proposed to extend the document for another year, but not to individuals who illegally left Ukraine, including men of conscription age.
According to Eurostat, there are currently about 4.4 million Ukrainian refugees in the EU, half of whom have settled in Germany and Poland. More than a quarter of them are men. It is not known exactly how many of them are of conscription age. Ukraine considers such people deserters.