The Hungarian government offers an emergency aid package worth HUF 9 million to the seriously injured survivors of the bombings carried out in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday and to children left orphans, the Minister of State for helping persecuted Christians and the implementation of the Hungary Helps Programme at the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Monday on the public service television news channel M1.

Tristan Azbej said they will later look into the possibility of providing further assistance on a larger scale.

The Minister of State also said that after the terrorist attacks claiming more than 290 lives our first duty is to reassure victims of our sympathy. He observed that there were some, however, who attempted to conceal the fact that “these were anti-Christian and anti-Western attacks”.

In his view, at present Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. The persecution of Christians claims more than four thousand lives annually; yet, large international organisations and Western governments do not deal with this issue, he said. He added that this is why the Hungarian government launched the Hungary Helps Programme in 2016, of which helping persecuted Christians forms an important part.

“In the East churches are bombed, in the West churches are closed down,” Mr Azbej said. He pointed out that in the West we cannot yet talk about the persecution of Christians, but we can talk about “an ever more serious anti-Christian attitude,” and the government rejects this.

He confirmed that their goal is to protect persecuted Christian communities which is a “thorn in the side” of anti-Christian politics. Another important goal of the programme is to prevent migration with humanitarian assistance provided on the ground, and clearly, anti-immigration forces do not like this approach. This is why they keep attacking the Hungarian government.

(Prime Minister's Office/MTI)