Quelle: The Budapest Beacon | mit vielen Fotos

by Illés Szurovecz

The Vámosszabadi refugee camp in southern Hungary is dangerously overcrowded. There refugees can choose between sleeping side by side on cots indoors or sleeping in tents where temperatures reach 110 degrees. Others opt to sleep in a small wood nearby. There are not enough toilets. Garbage is everywhere. The experience is not only trying for the refugees but also for the staff. Members of the press have been forbidden by the Office of Immigration and Nationality (BÁH) from visiting the camp. With the help of a Socialist member of parliament, abcug.hu was able to obtain some photographs from inside the camp.

Amidst unbearably crowded conditions, the more fortunate of the refugees sleep slide by side on used cots. Those less fortunate must sleep in tents pitched in the blazing sun. Of the latter, many prefer sleeping in a nearby wood despite having to brave mosquitoes from a nearby lake.

We know this not because we obtained a permit from the Office of Immigration and Nationality to enter the camp. The press is forbidden from entering the camps paid for by Hungarian taxpayers. Both the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (TASZ) believe that BÁH’s actions constitute an infringement of the right of the free press and citizens to inform themselves, and for this reason TASZ has formally requested the Ministry of Interior to modify this practice, but this has yet to happen. However, since members of parliament may enter refugee camps, we sought one who was willing to do so. In the end Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) MP Ágnes Kunhalmi agreed to allow us to accompany her to the Vámosszabadi. […]