Hungary highly appreciates efforts by the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies that seek to help all in need without any discrimination, Péter Sztáray, Deputy State Secretary for Security Policy, said in Budapest on Thursday.

The Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs addressed an international conference focussing on forced migration and deportation. The event marked the fifth anniversary of the opening in Budapest of the European office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). IFRC assists all victims of armed conflicts and natural disasters, irrespective of their ethnicity, gender, origin, religion and political affiliation, Sztáray said, adding that governments should closely cooperate with humanitarian organisations. Sztáray noted that Hungary provided 80,000 euros for helping Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries and 15,000 dollars for a project aimed to defend women's rights in a refugee camp in northern Kenya.

IFRC Deputy State Secretary Jagan Chapagain said that on global scale 73 million people are estimated to have left their homeland involuntarily. Of them, 43 million had to leave because of armed conflicts, for instance in Mali, Colombia, Liberia, Syria, Iraq and Somalia.    Another 15 million were forced to leave their homes by natural disasters, including people in Haiti, Japan, Bangladesh and Vietnam, he said. Fifteen million were forced to migrate because of large development projects, for instance dam construction, Chapagain said.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)