EU countries seek agreement on sharing Ukrainian refugees
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Interior ministers from across the European Union on Monday met in Brussels to discuss how to share out the effort of hosting Ukrainian refugees after some 3.8 million people fled Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on their country and crossed into the 27-nation bloc.
The month-long war killed thousands, targeted Ukrainian cities and drove away a quarter of Ukraine’s population of 44 million from their homes.
The Czech Republic has so far received some 300,000 Ukrainians, representing almost 3% of its population.
“The wave is really very big, and we have to expect that it is still not over. So now, of course, we also count on some solidarity from the other countries of the EU,” said Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan, warning his country was running out of appropriate reception sites.
Its western neighbour Germany called for a more even distribution of Ukrainian refugees in the European Union.
“We need to more actively distribute refugees within the EU and show solidarity by taking in refugees,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters before the meeting.
Her French counterpart Gerald Darmanin called for the same level of aid to be provided to refugees across the EU.
“First of all, I think that a very important point is that we in Europe must have the same social aid or financial aid in all the European countries so that there are no discrepancies between our countries. The European Commission has put a number of things on the table. I think we have to stick to it,” he said.
The ministers discussed sharing information and synchronizing databases, as well as transporting refugees further west in the EU, a bloc of 450 million people.
Ireland’s Helen Mcentee called for measures to be put in place to reduce the risk of human trafficking or sexual exploitation.
“What’s really important now is that we acknowledge the risks with such a mass movement of people, risks around human trafficking, child exploitation but also criminality,” the Irish Justice Minister said.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said there would be no obligatory quotas of refugees to be hosted per country, a fiercely contested policy at the time of the bloc’s previous major immigration spike in 2015-16.
“We are not working on any quota or any distribution of migrants towards us on specific quotas. This is voluntarily when (European Union) member states step in and day ‘we can do more,'” she said.
“I think that’s important when each member state steps in and welcome refugees. It’s important to see that other member states are doing the same, so this is the aim of this index,” the Swedish commissioner added, in reference to a document issued by the EU executive stating the number of refugees registered in each country, the percentage of the host country’s population they represent and aimed at easing the burden-sharing process.
Johansson said some 50,000 Ukrainians were now arriving daily in the EU, down from as many as 100,000 earlier on.
But there was no knowing how many more would come as Putin shows no readiness to compromise to end the war.
