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National forms of protection
Hungarian legislation provides a national form of protection, so called “tolerated status”. Tolerated status is granted when a foreign national does not meet the conditions for international protection status and, however, is at a significant risk of refoulement, if returned to their country of origin, and there is no safe third country offering refuge to them.[1]
Tolerated status is automatically reviewed by NDGAP when they reject an asylum application, and they consider a return decision. Rejected asylum applicants can therefore access this form of national protection if return decision cannot be issued in their case. Tolerated status is also granted in immigration proceedings if the refugee authority has adopted a decision on the prohibition of refoulement.[2] If the return decision is issued, but it turns out that it cannot be implemented (for other reasons, not because of non-refoulement), the GRTCN Act does not provide the possibility to get a tolerated status.[3]
Persons granted tolerated status receive a humanitarian residence permit, valid for one year. Persons with a tolerated status are entitled to be accommodated in the reception centres free of charge for a 30-day period after they received the recognition decision.[4] In order to work, they are required to obtain a work permit. If people under tolerated status do not benefit from the general social security regime (this would be possible through work), they are provided the following free of charge healthcare services:[5]
- Healthcare services provided by a general practitioner
- Emergency healthcare services
- Postmortem services
- Access to mandatory vaccinations
Children are entitled to mandatory public education and have access to higher education with national scholarships.[6]
Humanitarian residence permit can also be granted to:
- a person recognised by Hungary as a stateless person (valid for 3 years);
- any third-country national who was born in the territory of Hungary and who has been removed from the custody of his guardian having custody according to Hungarian law, and/or unaccompanied minors (valid for 1 year);
- for substantial national security or law enforcement reasons, by initiative of the court, the public prosecutor’s office, national security or law enforcement agency, or the investigating arm of the National Tax and Customs Authority
- to any third-country national, or other affiliated third-country nationals on his or her account, who has cooperated with the authorities in a crime investigation and has provided considerable assistance to gather evidence (valid up to 6 months);
- by initiative of the court, to third-country nationals who have been subjected to particularly exploitative working conditions, or to third-country national minors who were employed illegally without a valid residence permit or other authorization for stay (valid up to 6 months).[7]
Further on, in the absence of the conditions for granting refugee status, the Minister in charge of immigration can grant a refugee status to an alien under special and equitable circumstances, where this is necessary on humanitarian grounds, insofar as there are no grounds for exclusion of the alien from refugee protection.[8] In 2024, a Polish opposition politician, Mr. Romanovski, was granted such refugee status by the Minister in charge of immigration.[9] On 23 December 2025, Hungary informed the EU Council that it had given refugee status to two additional Polish citizens, without giving any further details and without naming the newly accepted refugees.[10] On 1 January 2026, Hungary modified Act CLXXX of 2012 on Co-operation in Matters of Criminal Justice with other Member States of the European Union, effectively exempting refugees from EU states from extradition to their original state of nationality.[11]
Return procedure
If asylum seekers are not already expelled before they apply for asylum, the return decision is issued jointly with the asylum rejection. The new GRTCN Act removed a recourse to a suspensive effect in administrative actions against a final decision ordering expulsion.[12]
Return decisions in case of rejected asylum seekers who are not detained usually contain a voluntary departure in 30 days. In case of detained rejected asylum seekers, the return is order by deportation. Rejected asylum seekers who were not detained during their asylum procedure are usually not detained while awaiting return.
A return decision issued in the return procedure has to be appealed within 8 days. Return decisions issued jointly with the asylum rejection should be appealed together with the appeal against a negative asylum decision, so the deadlines and legal aid are the same as described under the relevant sections before.
Persons who are already expelled cannot get any other type of residence.
In 2025, the NDGAP issued expulsion decisions in respect of 45 people in the asylum procedure. 363 persons were actually deported (there is no information how many had been asylum seekers before).[13]
[1] Section 25/A Asylum Act.
[2] Section 25/B Asylum Act.
[3] Section 104 GRTCN Act.
[4] Section 41(1) Gov. Decree 301/2007. (XI. 9.).
[5] Section 44(3)-(6) Gov. Decree 301/2007. (XI. 9.).
[6] Section 92(1)(a) and (c) and Section 39(1)(b) Act CCIV of 2011 on Higher Education.
[7] Section 70 GRTCA Act.
[8] Section 7(4) of the Asylum Act.
[9] Information obtained from the media. Ministry of Interior answered to the HHC’s FOI response that they do not keep statistic on this status.
[11] Section 5(1a) Act CLXXX of 2012.
[12] Section 101(2a) GRTCN Act.
[13] Information provided by NGDAP on 9 March 2026.