Hungary to continue protecting Ukrainian men eligible for military service, Magyar says

Hungary will continue offering protection to Ukrainian men eligible for military service who fled the war, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said on Thursday, Sept. 3.

Magyar said the European Union had decided several weeks earlier that refugee status could not be granted to military-age men fleeing the war. Despite that decision, he said, the Hungarian government had chosen to preserve Hungary’s right to grant such status.

He said he raised the issue during talks in Budapest with European Council President António Costa. Magyar argued that it was wrong to prevent people from leaving a country at war. “Hungary will act differently and help those who need it,” he told journalists.

The article says the EU adopted the new restriction at the end of July at the request of Ukrainian authorities. Under the agreement, Ukrainian men aged 23 to 60 entering the EU for the first time can use the bloc’s temporary protection scheme only if they show that they have fulfilled their military obligations or received an official exemption.

Applicants must provide documents showing their military status, such as a passport exit stamp or military-service or exemption papers. They can still submit individual asylum applications, but that process involves stricter conditions and lower chances of obtaining residence permits and international protection. Around 100,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Transcarpathia, the Ukrainian region bordering Hungary.

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Hungary will act differently and help those who need it.