EU interior ministers discuss how to host Ukrainian refugees

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) - EU interior ministers are holding on Monday an extraordinary meeting to discuss the bloc’s response to the arrival of Ukrainian refugees.

“We're facing an unprecedented situation. Since the war in Ukraine broke out, we have five times more people coming out of the war, as was the case in the Yugoslavian wars, and almost three times more refugees that came from Syria,” Margaritis Schinas, the vice-president of the European Commission, told reporters on the way to the reunion.

He said that after laying the legal foundations of a temporary protection scheme for Ukrainian refugees, the EU “turning the page and trying to implement these rights make them a tangible reality.”

He explained that EU ministers will discuss how to provide education and healthcare for refugees, as well as ways to integrate them into the job market.

According to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, the meeting will focus on the financial and logistical challenges of registering and hosting refugees, as well as the security implications.

“I also proposed a single registration platform for those who are granted temporary protection, so that, for example, France would know, what happened in Poland,” he added.

He stressed that those countries, where most of the Ukrainian refugees enter the EU territory, can rely on the bloc’s financial support and solidarity, but noted that a re-localization scheme is not necessary as the refugees have the means and knowledge to move within the bloc.

“It is unlike the previous crises. These people can freely move within the EU, many of them have their own vehicles. They tend to go to those places where there is already an established Ukrainian community,” Darmanin asserted.

Under the temporary protection directive, Ukrainian nationals, their family members, and residents of the country are entitled to protection in the EU for at least a year with a possible extension of two years.

The protection scheme grants the right to work, residency, education, social welfare, and medical assistance.

The EU hosts the majority of the 3.86 million Ukrainians who fled the country since Russia launched the war on Ukraine on Feb. 24

According to the UN, over 2.3 million Ukrainians entered the bloc via Poland, 596,000 via Romania, 354,000 via Hungary, and 275,000 via Slovakia.