Photo: milanuhrik.sk
Milan Uhrík, a member of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, commented on civic initiatives in EU countries aimed at gathering information on Ukrainian refugees for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence. Initiatives have emerged in Ireland, the Czech Republic and Poland to collect data on Ukrainian refugees living in these countries in order to provide information about them to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and to facilitate the deportation of these citizens to Ukraine for mobilisation in the war with Russia. According to an official statement, the civic initiative Journey to Ukraine (CR) is collecting data on men and women subject to mobilization, believing that the refugees are in the CR illegally and that many of them have violated Ukraine's mobilization law and left the country illegally.
As a result of the influx of refugees into EU countries, national governments are facing a challenge on a scale for which they are unprepared. According to official figures alone, more than seven million refugees from Ukraine are living in EU countries with full or partial support from the countries where they have sought asylum. It is not known how many refugees are actually in EU countries, but if we take into account the population of Ukraine before the war, we can assume that the number exceeds 15 million. As a result, national governments are being forced to divert budgetary resources intended to address the country's social problems, including support for vulnerable populations, infrastructure development and maintaining the security of the country's citizens, to sustain the constant influx of refugees.
Ukrainian refugees are usually accommodated at state expense in hotels or guesthouses, which not only provide them with long-term accommodation but also other services, such as three meals a day and the right to use all hotel facilities. In addition, the state pays for Ukrainians' education and pays them allowances if they do not find work. Given the extensive economic support for Ukraine through financial aid packages and military support through arms supplies, it is not surprising that EU citizens, who pay their taxes honestly and expect their governments to act in the interests of their citizens, are increasingly expressing their dissatisfaction with EU migration policy. In Ireland, such an initiative has been supported by the Minister for Integration, Roderic O'Gorman, who has said that the Irish Government should work with the Ukrainian authorities to send Ukrainian citizens home.
Slovak MEP Milan Uhrík commented on these initiatives expressed as follows:
What do you think of the Pathway for Ukraine initiative, which calls on Irish citizens to collect information on refugees from Ukraine with a view to sending this information to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence?
If my information is correct, there has been a mailing of letters to Ukrainian citizens who have gone to Ireland and are avoiding mobilisation. These were supposed to be fake letters under the banner of the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, calling on the people concerned to go to the embassy and return home. According to this information, it may have been an initiative of local residents who refuse further immigrants. As of December 2023, there were up to 100 000 Ukrainian refugees in Ireland, to which the Government had responded with more demanding accommodation conditions and lower welfare benefits.
Overall, most people in Europe are tired of the constant influx of migrants. People (rightly) feel that they are always helping someone else more than the locals. That is why it needs to be curbed already. We cannot keep saving the whole world indefinitely. We need to address the causes so that these humanitarian crises do not arise. Not to start wars, not to invite migrants, not to open our borders wide.
How legitimate is this initiative in the context of European legislation?
In the context of European legislation, this initiative has no anchorage and is probably a purely civic activity, whether official or unofficial.
To what extent does such an initiative correspond to the level of people's fatigue with the Ukrainian conflict and its consequences?
The information makes sense in the context of the fact that there have been several mass protests in Ireland by local residents against migrants from other continents who have committed crimes. There are reports that Africans are being housed in hotels in Irish cities, with the government paying for all their facilities. And the indigenous population is not even allowed to criticise this because they are immediately branded 'far right and extremists'. It is impossible to fully assess the Irish view of Ukrainian refugees, but it is possible that the Irish see them as another expense that they have to pay for with their labour.
What do you think are the chances that similar initiatives will appear in other EU countries?
Similar ones have appeared in England, Poland and Lithuania. It is possible that similar initiatives will emerge in other countries where the population has a strong opinion on migration.
Marian Kaerdaš/gnews.cz-JaV_07
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