Minister of Human Capacities Zoltán Balog visited refugees at the Children’s Centre in Fót, near Budapest on Sunday. The Minister was shown around the Centre by Director István Kádas and manager of the home for refugee children Zsófia Roszik, and was able see how the 70 children currently living there are doing first hand.
The Minister visited the rooms, mess hall, recreational room and prayer room and exchanged a few words with several children in English. Mr. Kádas said the Centre was open to all refugee children but given that most of them spend only a few days there before moving on, their numbers change every day. He also said that most of the children were from Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan – eight Egyptian children also arrived on 23 September, but seven of them left over the weekend without disclosing their destination.
The Director also said experience so far showed children who had already attended school at home and had a desire to continue their studies here, and who felt they were safe and in good hands in the home were more likely to stay longer.
Most of the children were brought to Hungary by smugglers paid by parents who felt their lives were threatened at home, but most children didn’t know or wouldn’t say how much their parents had paid. The Director also said the fact that most children were Muslim was being taken into account during the preparation of meals: pork has been removed from the menu and the Centre is doing its best to prepare meals that are acceptable to everyone; the children’s favourites are beans and eggs.
Following the first month of their stay, children over 14 also receive 5,130 forints in pocket money and are allowed to leave the home in groups, Mr. Kádas said, adding that some of the locals were “slightly apprehensive” about the children being there, but the town was welcoming overall there had been only minor disagreements between children from different countries. There isn’t even any Shiite-Sunnite animosity here, although we take care to ensure that children share rooms with other minors form the same ethnic group, Mr, Kádas told the Minister.
Mr. Balog said only very few children visited the well-supplied prayer room. He also exchanged a few words with the children, who had no complaints about their conditions and most of whom said they wanted to travel on to Germany.
The visit came to a close in the office of the Director, who also said that the number of children around the age of 15 has risen recently, most of them arriving from Afghanistan. He also said the children’s home was already thinking about how to accommodate as many as 200-300 children, should their numbers increase.