Migrant Facilities in Hungary

In Hungary, there are different types of facilities accommodating migrants according to their status. These centers are managed and operated by different authorities of the Hungarian state. On December 2021, there were two open reception centers and one home for unaccompanied children in Hungary.  

Balassagyarmat is a community shelter with a maximum capacity of 140 places for asylum seekers, beneficiaries of international protection, persons under immigration procedure and foreigners having been held for 12 months in immigration detention (AIDA, 2022). The occupancy at the end of 2021 counts only 5 persons. 

The reception center in Vámosszabadi operated by the Office of Immigration and Asylum (OIA) hosts beneficiaries of international protection. This is an open facility: migrants can leave the center during the day, but a curfew time shall be observed. Under the current legislation, people accommodated in the Vámosszabadi center are not entitled to state-provided pocket money, only to meals, and are allowed to stay in the facility for a maximum of 30 days. 

Repeat asylum seekers or Dublin returnees are transferred into a closed asylum detention center operated by the OIA. There are two facilities of this kind in Hungary as shown in the map below. 

The fourth type of migrant facility is managed and operated by the Hungarian Police. These institutions accommodate migrants who enter Hungarian territory in an irregular manner and do not claim asylum. Moreover, if a person overstays in Hungary and has no identification documents, he/she is also transferred into an alien policing detention center. These facilities are closed, and a migrant can be kept there up to two years according to latest changes in the asylum law. 

The last type of facility is the child protection center. There is currently only one of these centers, managed by the Guardianship Office of Hungary in Fót. It is open, and accommodates unaccompanied minors apprehended in Hungary. The Children Home would have had be dismissed in 2016 but it is still open today. On December 2021, 3 unaccompanied asylum seekers registered but there were only 3 children present.