Hungary has donated 5 million euros towards building a hospital in Syria, and construction will go ahead once the security situation allows, the foreign minister has confirmed.
Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, made the announcement during a donor conference in Brussels on Wednesday organized by the European Union and the United Nations.
The minister said Hungary’s investment would help pave the way for the swiftest possible repatriation of Syrians. The situation in Syria and its settlement cannot be separated from the migration crisis in Europe, considering that conflicts in the region are among the main causes of migration, he added.
Minister Szijjártó said the European Union should revise the priorities of its migration policy; instead of encouraging people to come to Europe, it should focus on eliminating the causes of migration and taking help to places where it is needed in order to allow people to stay at home or near their home.
He added that Hungary is also paying its final installment of the EU package for helping refugees stranded in Turkey. The country will have contributed altogether 14.6 million euros with its last payment.
Hungary is calling for more financial aid to Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, considering that these countries are looking after millions of refugees, the minister said.
The security circumstances and living conditions in the Middle East need to be developed in order to enable people return to their homes as soon as possible, he added.
To this effect, Hungary has launched a program called Hungary Helps. It is a basic security interest that the pressure resulting from the crisis in the Middle East should be eliminated and people who moved to Europe from the region should be able to return home, the minister said.
Over the past two years, Hungary has provided 3.6 billion HUF (11.6 million EUR) on programs helping Middle Eastern refugees stay at home and return home, he added.