A new law threatening to drive thousands of migrants from Ukraine back to their home country or onto the streets has been implemented in Hungary. With effect from Wednesday, this legislative move denied Ukrainian refugees access to government-subsidised accommodation.

This new rule is the outcome of a decision made in June by Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban to restrict public assistance to refugees from areas of Ukraine that are not thought to be impacted by the war between Ukraine and Russia.

The list, which will be updated monthly by the Hungarian government, includes thirteen regions in Ukraine. It is unknown how many of the 31,000 Ukrainians who are seeking refuge in Hungary will be impacted by the new legislation.

Government Commissioner Norbert Pal defended the change as “reasonable and proportionate” after two and a half years of war. He told the pro-government Magyar Nemzet newspaper that “those who wanted to get back on their feet in Hungary have been able to do so.”

Privately-owned shelters have already started evicting refugees now ineligible for support, the Migration Aid group said.

In Kocs, north of Budapest, around 120 refugees were ousted from a guest house under police supervision on Wednesday, an AFP photographer saw.

Most were Roma women and children from Transcarpathia in western Ukraine, where there is a large Hungarian community.

“We are in a hopeless situation because we have nowhere to go,” Marina Amit, a mother-of-five who fled to Hungary last year, told AFP.

“We cannot go home to Ukraine; I have a 17-year-old son,” she added, saying she feared he would be conscripted into the Ukrainian army.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimated this week that 2,000-3,000 Ukrainians could lose access to subsidised accommodation.

The rule change will result in “job losses and impact school enrolment, jeopardising the positive integration achievements obtained so far,” UNHCR said in a statement urging Hungary to reconsider.