HUNGARY
LEGAL AND POLICY CONTEXT
Since May 2011, services for unaccompanied
and separated children in Hungary have been
the responsibility of the country’s child pro-
tection system. Unaccompanied and separated
children are appointed a guardian, who is
legally responsible for their care and their legal
representation. They are entitled to the same
care arrangements as Hungarian children 1 , and
hosted in a designated child protection facility,
the Károlyi István Children’ Centre.
In 2015 Hungary experienced an increase in the
number of migrants and refugees arriving in the
country and seeking to continue their journey
to other European countries. A number of legal
reforms were carried out in recent years, which
changed the protection framework for asylum
seekers, including unaccompanied and separat-
ed children. The revised regulatory frame work,
along with the closure of Hungary’s border with
Serbia and new border restrictions, resulted
in a significant decrease in the numbers of
asylum seekers and migrants 2 . According to
Eurostat, the number of unaccompanied and
separated children seeking asylum in Hungary
dropped from 8,805 in 2015 to 1,220 in 2016 3 .
Nevertheless, a new law introduced on 28
March 2017 means that all asylum seekers in
Hungary, including families with children of
all ages and unaccompanied and separated
children over the age of 14 are held in closed
transit zones along the Serbian–Hungarian
border. Only unaccompanied children under
the age of 14 are exempted from detention and
transferred to the Károlyi István Children’s
Centre, where they can access specialised child
protection services.
The Guardianship Office of the 5th district in
Budapest has been designated as the single
competent body in charge of appointing
guardians for unaccompanied and separated
children and other non-national children. To
avoid conflicts of interest, the person acting as
a guardian should not also be a caregiver in the
facility where the child is placed. Despite the
legal provisions, there are still significant delays
in the appointment of guardians 4 .
The Károlyi István Children’s Centre in Fót is
the only facility in Hungary providing care to
unaccompanied and separated children. The
centre can normally accommodate approxi-
mately 50 children; in the case of an emergency
this number can go up to 140. Children placed
in the centre receive a short-term placement
status for a maximum of 30 days. However, in
practice, this period usually lasts much longer –
four to five months. The main goal of the short-
term placement is to assess the child’s best
interests and to identify durable solutions such
as family reunification or referral to a long-term
care placement. Care workers and educators are
responsible for undertaking a needs assessment
for each individual child. An Expert Committee
of the Child Protection Services of Budapest
conducts an assessment and recommends the
type of placement.
1 _ European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), Case Study on a Dedicated Reception Centre with a Range of Integrated Services in
Hungary, (June 2016) https://www.ecre.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Hungary_Case_Study1.pdf.
2 _ For statistics, please refer to Hungarian Helsinki Committee, Hungary: Key Asylum Figures as of 1 April 2017, (12 April 2017)
https://www.helsinki.hu/en/hungary-key-asylum-figures-as-of-1-april-2017/ .
3 _ “Asylum Applicants Considered to Be Unaccompanied Minors by Citizenship, Age and Sex - Annual data (rounded) [migr_asyunaa]”,
Eurostat, last modified 16 August 2017, http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=migr_asyunaa&lang=en.
4 _ For more information, see “Best Interest Out of Sight: The Treatment of Asylum Seeking Children in Hungary”,
Hungarian Helsinki Committee, (2017), http://www.helsinki.hu/wp-content/uploads/Bestinterestoutofsight.pdf.
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