Three years on, the state of play for Ukrainians in Europe
Advocacy team of France terre d'asile - Published on December, 31st 2024Version Française
In 2022, following Russia’s war against Ukraine, an unprecedented burst of European solidarity enabled several million Ukrainians fleeing the conflict to find shelter within a few weeks. However, almost three years on, and despite the extension of temporary protection until 2026, several European countries are quietly withdrawing from welcoming Ukrainians.
On 21 October 2024, Ola, aged 56, and Anatolii, aged 62, a Ukrainian couple who had been refugees in France since December 2022, received a letter asking them to leave their home in Meurthe-et-Moselle by the end of the month. Like the sixty other people who have received this letter, the authorities blamed them for not being sufficiently integrated in France. Thanks to the involvement of local associations and a delegate from the Ombudsman, they were finally granted two more months to leave their accommodation.
In Hungary too, dozens of Ukrainian refugees have lost their homes. On 28 June 2024, the government changed the criteria for obtaining social housing: since 21 August 2024, when the decree came into force, people coming from regions less affected by the fighting – several hundred people – no longer have access to such housing. In Kocs, in the north-west of the country, 127 people, including 80 children, were evicted from their homes. While some families were rehoused after spending a night sleeping outside, others were forced to return to Ukraine. Western Ukrainians, and especially the Roma population from the Transcarpathia region, who are highly discriminated against, are becoming increasingly at risk. Yet Hungary takes in relatively few refugees compared with other countries bordering Ukraine.
In the Czech Republic, since the 1st of September 2024, following a change in the ‘Lex Ukraine’, the length of access to free emergency accommodation provided by the State has been shortened from 150 to 90 days. This applies to all Ukrainians, regardless of their level of vulnerability.
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared in May 2024 that more Ukrainian refugees should take up work. The OECD reports that in countries such as Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, the employment rate for Ukrainians is over 50%, while in Germany, Austria and Belgium, fewer than one in four have entered the labour market. According to the Polish Economic Institute, 18% of Ukrainian refugees were employed in Germany in January 2024. Some argue that the benefits, more generous than in other countries (€563/month for a single person), could deter beneficiaries of temporary protection from looking for work. However, it is rather the lack of stable housing, of recognition of diplomas and skills, difficulties in learning the language and accessing to childcare solutions that are holding back access to employment, especially for women, who make up the majority of exiles from Ukraine.
A fragile protection
In June 2024, the Council of the European Union (EU) extended temporary protection for the 6 million Ukrainians living in Europe until March 2026. However, some countries are now trying to limit access to effective protection. In Norway (a member of Schengen), Ukrainians from the west of the country will no longer be entitled to automatic protection, and their applications will be examined on a case-by-case basis. In Switzerland too, the S status, which corresponds to temporary protection from the EU, will only be granted to Ukrainian nationals from regions affected by the fighting.
Public support for accepting Ukrainian exiles is also waning in some countries. While 94% of Poles were in favour of accepting Ukrainian war refugees in 2022, the figure is now 53%. One of the reasons for this could be the ‘cereals crisis’: in 2022, the EU set up ‘solidarity corridors’, making it easier to import Ukrainian goods into Europe. Many Ukrainian products, particularly cereals, arrived on the Polish market at a lower price than domestic production. In February 2024, to protest against this perceived unfair competition, Polish farmers dumped Ukrainian wheat at the border and blocked around a hundred roads in Poland. Finally, while most Ukrainian refugees are women aged between 18 and 64 (40.6%) and children (32%), 21.3% are men aged between 18 and 64. At a time when the Ukrainian army is facing a shortage of fighters, Poles frown upon taking in potential soldiers. In a recent survey by CBOS, the Polish national statistics office, almost two-thirds (67%) of respondents said that men of military age should return to Ukraine. In April 2024, the Ukrainian government suspended passport renewals for men aged between 18 and 60 living abroad, hoping to force them to return to join the army.
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