UNICEF Emergency Response in Hungary

Background

Children fleeing war struggle with fear, anxiety and grief associated with loss of loved ones, separation from one or more parents, forced displacement, challenges meeting friends and integrating into new schools, including social isolation, bullying, stigma, and overarching uncertainty about the future, amounting to an upheaval of their childhoods. All these children require structured activities to help them overcome the emotional distress. To ensure they can get the support they need, refugee children must be integrated into existing services by the national Child Protection system.

The most vulnerable families with children often reside in sheltered housing and are at heightened risk of violence, exploitation, abuse, trafficking, sexual exploitation, discrimination, and exclusion. Women and girls are particularly vulnerable. Children with disabilities face additional protection and inclusion challenges. Based on the limited available data, a significant proportion of families seeking asylum in Hungary originate from Transcarpathia, and many are from Roma communities.

UNICEF's Response

UNICEF’s child protection programme in Hungary worked to strengthen systems to protect children who had fled war in Ukraine from violence, exploitation and abuse, while helping ensure they live in nurturing and stimulating family environments. Response to the needs of refugee children and families builds on the existing child protection services and systems already available in-country.

Through multi-sectoral partnerships with municipality and civil society organizations, children and their families are referred to local and national child protection services, receive information on the availability of child friendly spaces in refugee accommodation centers, and benefit from needs-based mental health and psychosocial support and case management. For example, UNICEF worked with the Hungarian Ministry of Interior to strengthen child protection, child welfare, education, anti-trafficking, and health related services for refugee children and held training sessions on parenting, child-friendly forensic interviewing and nurturing care reaching hundreds of professionals across the country.

UNICEF worked with the municipalities of Debrecen, Záhony – entry points for refugees in Hungary’s eastern border - Budapest and Győr to improve the scope and quality of child protection services in the host communities. Through these partnerships, UNICEF supported refugee and host community children.

UNICEF increased the capacity of frontline professionals to identify, prevent and respond to the major child protection risks in emergencies, including trafficking, violence against children and gender-based violence. UNICEF helped strengthen the skills of implementing partners on child safeguarding and prevention of sexual abuse and exploitation.

The UNICEF Refugee Response Office in Hungary served as a member of the Ministry of Interior-led NGO Roundtable on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings and provided assistance in training law enforcement officers and border police on prevention of anti-trafficking, with specialized focus on child victims as well as child-friendly forensic interviewing.

Along the regional partnership with Child Helpline International UNICEF supported the national child helpline Kék Vonal in operating a Ukrainian-Russian speaking support line. Up until the end of 2024, UNICEF reached close to 1.3 million children with information about the helpline, more than 21,000 children and caregivers with mental health counseling, and more than 9,800 people with access to safe and accessible channels to report sexual violence and exploitation.   

Background

The war in Ukraine severely disrupted children’s access to education, threatening children's long-term academic and career prospects. For Ukrainian refugees in Hungary, schools and early childhood education centers offer structure and safety, while playing a crucial role in supporting children's mental health. Integrating Ukrainian refugee children into Hungary's education system is crucial for sustainable learning and societal integration. This approach fosters social skills through peer interaction and supports their overall adaptation to their new environment.

In the 2023-2024 school year, 80 per cent of school-aged refugee children (6-17 years) were enrolled in Hungarian schools. The rate is lower for adolescents accessing formal secondary education.

Enrolling Ukrainian refugees in Hungarian schools faces several challenges. Limited school capacity and insufficient learning materials strain resources. Teachers are often unprepared to manage multilingual classrooms with diverse knowledge levels and mental health needs. Communication barriers with Ukrainian families further complicate integration. Additionally, many Ukrainian children prefer to continue their home curriculum through distance learning, resisting local educational integration. 

UNICEF’s Response

UNICEF worked with a range of national and international partners including municipalities and civil society and faith-based organizations to ensure equitable access to quality education and learning for all Ukrainian refugee children including providing access to specialized training for teachers on child-centered pedagogical approaches, mental health support and inclusive education; and access to formal and non-formal education, accelerated learning programmes, Hungarian language classes and skills building opportunities. This approach facilitates the integration of out-of-school children into formal education and the retention of vulnerable children at risk of dropping out.

UNICEF and partners opened 15 Play and Learning Hubs across the country to provide parenting support, early childhood development activities and professional development opportunities for early childhood educators. In May 2024 UNICEF Refugee Response Office Hungary and the Municipality of Budapest launched the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Grant Scheme aimed to support the holistic early childhood development of young Ukrainian refugee children and other vulnerable children and families.  

Background

Long-term displacement of refugees from Ukraine puts pressure on national systems while high inflation rates, rising energy costs and the overall increase in the cost of living compound the financial hardship among host communities and refugees alike.

Displacement means that people lose assets and livelihoods and are unable to plan their future. Refugees also face additional costs related to enrolling their children into local schools, buying basic learning supplies or warm winter clothes.

Strengthening the social protection services and increasing access for all families is critical in building resilience and meeting the most urgent needs of children.  

UNICEF’s Response

UNICEF Emergency Response in Hungary set up a cash assistance programme in collaboration with the Municipalities of Budapest and Záhony to help vulnerable children and families mitigate financial loss, while helping them to bridge the period until they secure a sustainable income. The programme combined one-off unconditional and unrestricted cash assistance with referral to services to help families address the specific needs of their children and facilitate their access to available social services. The programme has also contributed to further strengthening the Municipality’s social protection system and fostering social cohesion.

Background

Access to primary health care including immunization, advice on adequate nutrition and feeding practices for babies and children, and mental health and psychosocial support remains a challenge for refugees in Hungary due to language barriers and limited capacity of national health systems to absorb an increasing number of patients. It is therefore critical to address barriers that hinder access for Ukrainian refugees to these essential services.

UNICEF’s response

Through the collaboration with the Municipalities of Debrecen and Győr as well as with the Hungarian Reformed Church Aid, UNICEF supported local health service providers to ensure regular household visits for early identification of children and women in need for immunization, early childhood intervention and development services, specialized mental health support, health promotion and health education.

In December 2022, UNICEF partnered with the Municipality of Debrecen, the University of Debrecen, and the NGO Dorcas Ministries to increase access to health services and promote adequate nutrition and good feeding practices for both refugee and host community families.

Through the collaboration with the University of Debrecen, UNICEF procured a medical container in the Dorcas Ministries accommodation center. The container is staffed with health professionals, including Ukrainian health workers to provide services such as immunization, early childhood development support, specialized mental health support, health promotion and health education.

The Debrecen Health Promotion Center set up operations with the support of UNICEF and as a result introduced a wide range of screenings, preventive and developmental services in a more sustainable establishment to assist both refugees and the host community.

UNICEF also facilitated the participation of representatives from the Ministry of Interior Health Policy Department in a training of trainers, targeting health visitors on supporting families to provide nurturing care.