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IOI President and WA Ombudsman Chris Field and Hungarian Ombudsman Dr. Ákos Kozma
Chris Field, President of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) and Western Australian Ombudsman, attended border crossing points at the Hungarian-Romanian and Hungarian-Ukrainian borders during his official visit to Hungary.
“Over a period of two days, I was privileged to meet local Mayors, doctors, nurses, red cross staff, and border crossing officers, all of whom have played a vital role in ensuring the well-being and safe passage of more than one million refugees escaping the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine.
My visit included the Csengersima-Petea crossing point at the Hungarian-Romanian border and the Záhony, Beregsurány and Lónya crossing points at the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. My visit followed an invitation from the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary, Dr Ákos Kozma. The prominent presence of highly dedicated staff from the office of the Commissioner working from temporary regional offices, both in directly oversighting the work of government agencies and providing immediate information and assistance to refugees, is a great testament to the critical role of the Ombudsman institution at times of crisis" said President Field.
“By far my greatest privilege was to speak directly to a Ukrainian family fleeing the war. While Russian missiles had been successfully destroyed by Ukraine’s anti-missile defence system, the explosions were so close to their apartment building that they collected their belongings overnight and their journey to refuge commenced at 5am that morning.
It is an unimaginable trauma for many of us to have to flee the place that your children have grown, and your life revolves, to an utterly uncertain future. This harrowing, heartbreaking account, of which there are at least seven million other stories, is the devastating consequence at a human level that flows directly from breaches of the rules-based international order” said President Field.
