Hungary needs additional funding to alleviate the financial burdens linked to migration and the costs of handling refugees, Mihály Varga, the finance minister, said on Facebook.

Hungary has spent 600 billion forints (EUR 1.6bn) on protecting the southern border and 40 billion forints on managing the Ukrainian refugee situation. The EU contribution covers only 2% of the costs, he added.

So far Hungary has secured 300 million euros in European Union resources in connection with the refugee situation arising from the Russia-Ukraine war.

In late March, the prime minister’s chief of staff said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had received the pledge of funding in lieu of the costs of looking after refugees from Ukraine.

This sum of more than 100 billion forints can be freely used to cover the costs incurred as a result of the war, and would be of great help in avoiding Hungarians paying the cost of war, the prime minister’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, said earlier.