Blaha Lujza square is the intersection of Budapest’s 7th and 8th district. Many of us often pass through it —  for example, on the 4-6 tram or the number 7 bus. On 4 April, the Negyed7Negyed8 Festival started a week long celebration the 7th and 8th district and MigSzol was invited to participate. The festival opening at the Blaha Lujza square was especially about the square itself, and the people living in and around it. 

MigSzol was happy to join Negyed7Negyed8’s Blaha Port because we know that many people living in the 7 and 8th districts of Budapest are not Hungarian citizens - and oftentimes they face many problems, for example the many challenges when they apply to become Hungarian citizens. 

Recently MigSzol members invented a new board game called ‘Citizenship!’ to help illustrate to the Hungarian public the immense difficulties and hurdles to be overcome to become a citizen of Hungary. For Hungarians and non-Hungarians alike, our Citizenship board game illustrates some of the experiences about this lengthy procedure, how it works (and many times does not work) for people with refugee status. The steps on the game follow the challenges to receive a better status, and then to find a flat when they leave the camp, look for a job, and the difficult struggle to learn Hungarian, and more.

Those who played our game at the Blaha Port quickly learned that as recognised refugees they could only apply for citizenship after 3 years of living in Hungary. For this, they need many documents as proof of their accommodation and employment in Hungary. Yet, even with the fulfilment of all of these and other requirements there is no automatic success. Blaha gamers found that they could easily just roll the dice one more time, but in real life it can mean years of frustration. 

We, in MigSzol, think that it’s unacceptable that the Hungarian state plays with other people’s lives like this and we support a fairer system to attain citizenship that is available to all who live in Hungary.

On 12 October many refugees and migrants will vote at the local elections. Therefore MigSzol is mapping the programs related to refugees and migrants of those cities' and districts' candidates, where many refugees are living. 

We have asked the candidates of Bicske, Vámosszabadi and Debrecen, where the refugee camps are, and we asked many of the district-candidates of Budapest most importantly about how they plan to bring the refugees and the migrants closer to the local community, how refugees can have easier access to education, health care, free Hungarian courses and a human treatment by the police. 

You can read our questions here and based on the answers we will get and publish, everybody will be able to decide which candidates are really willing to act for a more inclusive local community.



Dear Candidate,

The Migrant Solidarity Group of Hungary (MigSzol) would like to inform the candidates who want to become mayors of the districts of Budapest, that many people who were granted the refugee status will be able to vote in the local elections on 12 October 2014.

According to the information gathered by MigSzol, many refugees who were freshly granted the refugee status received a letter from the local elections office informing them about the date of the elections and their right to vote. Unfortunately this letter was sent to them in Hungarian language, but MigSzol helped them understand what the letter informs them about, and MigSzol is promoting them their right to vote.
 

On September 27, A Város Mindenkié (AVM) held a protest and march to demand Budapest's empty unused flats and buildings to be opened up and renovated.  Migráns Szolidaritás Csoport / Migrant Solidarity Group of Hungary (MigSzol)  joined the protest because we agree with AVM when they ask how can thousands be forced to live on the streets when thousands of empty flats are available?

Homelessness is an issue that MigSzol has dealt with a lot in the past.  Not only were the refugees today in Hungary, by definition, homeless from the start of their journey escaping troubles in their home countries but many are still homeless today in Hungary. For more details on how refugees become homeless, you can also see our previous blog post on the topic. 

Sadly, this is because the Hungarian state has failed in its duties, under law and basic decency, to help them 'integrate' into Hungarian society and failed to promote and work for an inclusive Hungary.  We know that refugees have been driven directly from the 'integration camps' of Bicske to homeless shelters in Budapest. The concept of an “integration camp” does not exist anymore, but the practice has not changed -  after life in a camp, refugees often become homeless. 

Homelessness among refugee population has been one of our core concerns and issues of fighting since the beginning. Indeed, in the founding days of MigSzol in November 2012 when Afghans and others from the Bicske refugee camp organized their own protest in front of the Hungarian Parliament, they were protesting the threat of becoming homeless. 

There was even a time when MigSzol drew up a grant proposal in which refugees in Hungary could help renovate and build their own housing that they need for their families.  We quickly learned that this was an overly ambitious idea for our new group!  But even then the solution was obvious: open up the empty buildings and flats in Budapest and allow people affected by the issue of homelessness (Hungarians and refugees) to be a part of the solution.  And one of AVM’s demands today is an adequate social housing system, which currently does not exist.

Homelessness is not a 'personal fault' or 'sin' but a product of the national politics and economics of Hungary which refuses to create a solution for everyone.  Politics and economics should be about inclusion of everyone and not just a few. Currently, a new law criminalizes homelessness and makes it an arrestable offence. 

As AVM states, there are approximately 100,000 empty flats in Budapest in need of renovation and can be offered as social housing to those in need - and MigSzol sees this as a part of potential solution for refugees in Hungary, as well.

Even after a series of negotiations (2012-2013) between the MigSzol refugee members, the Hungarian state and working through international NGOs, the government failed to provide a solution.  These refugees discovered what they saw as the impossibility of 'integration' into Hungarian life without sufficient social help.  

The government’s sink-or-swim policies for refugees simply do not work.  Later in June 2013, many of these Afghan refugees, many with families, decided their lives could be better if they left en masse from Hungary rather than risk life on the streets of Budapest. 

The September 27 protest naturally focused primarily on the needs of Hungarian citizens — MigSzol believes refugees face an identical neglect and exclusion from Hungarian life.

We are happy and proud to stand with AVM in the streets because their struggle is our struggle!

In April 2014, AVM wrote 12 points of demands regarding homelessness in Hungary, 10 of these are directly relevant to Migrants and refugees…

• End the criminalisation of Homelessness
• Housing is a basic right
• No evictions without ensuring a place to live
• Housing policy that gives priority to the needy
• Create an expanded social housing policy 
• Increase the amount of housing support (money)
• Every flat should be inhabited
• Dignified work and income for all
• Revise the address regulations 

Migszol started a series of fundraising events this Saturday (13 September 2014) with a Market Day at the Gardrób Közösségi Vásár, in the Central Passage on Király utca. This was quite an unexpected event for the group, as charity fundraising was one of the last things on our minds until a couple of months ago. Operating on a money deficit is pretty much the permanent state of affairs for Migszol, but we usually manage to get by mostly by contributing from our own pockets and getting some occasional donations. We are thrifty people.

What happened a few months ago?

We met Guilherme. We heard about him from a friendly NGO and we gave him a call. It turned out Guilherme has been living in Hungary for more than 10 years with a legal status that comes with little to no protection: he was granted a ‘tolerated stay’ (befogadott) in Hungary, a confusing legal status that is hard to understand even for people dealing with asylum issues.

Guilherme can stay in Hungary but he does not have the right to work, receive health care or social assistance. He has a terrible health problem as his legs are amputated below the knees, his prosthetics are old and they hurt him. And, because he is not allowed to work, he does not have a stable income. When Migszol heard of this terrible situation, we contacted several organizations who might have the institutional and financial resources to help. Unfortunately none of them were able to help.

Because we are so outraged that Guilherme was left to fend for himself without being given the means to do that, we decided to try to raise the money ourselves. So here we are now, asking for money and for help — fundraising. We thought of selling food, throwing parties and one of our members suggested participating in Gardrób Közösségi Vásár. We contacted them, and fortunately they were friendly and offered us a free table at their next event. Then we collected donated clothes, hangers, a metal stand, and a bike trailer from Cyclonomia and there we were, on our way to the market!