Brussels’ solidarity with kyiv is not expressed only by sending arms or sanctions against Russia. Since the beginning of the conflict, lists EUObserver.com, no less than 4.2 million Ukrainians have been granted refugee status in a European Union country, under the “temporary protection directive”. A device that has enabled these people fleeing the conflict “to have the opportunity to work, go to school or even access medical services” of the states that hosted them, specifies the information site.
The effects of this directive were to end in March 2023, but, finally, the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, announced that this device will be extended until March 2024, with, as a bonus, an important novelty. Until now, the many Ukrainians who, after having fled, had decided to return to their country had to deregister from the protection programme. An obligation that will be abolished, announced Johansson, since “Ukrainians returning home will be able to retain their protection status at home in case they have to flee again,” explains the medium.
From now on, a simple notification of their departure will suffice, the objective being not to discourage Ukrainians from returning for fear of losing their protection, in a context where they could be obliged to emigrate again.
The massive emigration created by this conflict “had not been observed since the Second World War”, recalls the media, which relays, by way of conclusion, a reflection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi. According to him, welcoming millions of Ukrainians would have broken the “mythes antimigrants” : “[L’année dernière,] everyone still thought that Europe was incapable of managing a few dozen people disembarked by boat”, did he declare.