On the occasion of the first anniversary of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the German Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, has questioned the disparity between countries of the European Union when it comes to receiving Ukrainian war refugees in an interview with the newspapers of the Funke group. The minister specifically alluded to the lower number of people arriving in Spain (around 160,000), although its population is greater than that of Poland, which has received 1.5 million people.
The minister has recognized that the arrival of Ukrainian refugees has put more pressure on Berlin from the regional authorities, who are demanding more resources. She can say that around 1.1 million citizens of that country at war arrived in Germany, more than the number of Syrians, Iraqis or Afghans welcomed between 2014 and 2016.
In Germany, the first months of reception went smoothly, although some communes and regions recently alerted the government that they were reaching their limits, and that they need more apartments, nurseries and schools, while the flow of arrivals, also from other countries, does not decrease.
The German Federation of Municipalities has also joined the call for greater solidarity within Europe. Its president, Markus Lewe, has also stressed that “Poland and Germany have welcomed half of the refugees”, so he sees it as “necessary” for there to be an “equitable distribution” between the countries.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, some 8 million Ukrainians have fled their country. This exodus in Europe is considered the largest refugee movement since World War II. The profile of these refugees is also atypical: 90% are women and children, since men between the ages of 18 and 60 do not have the right to leave the country due to martial law.
The Ukrainian exile gave rise to an unprecedented welcome impulse on the part of the European states, which have unanimously adopted and, since the start of the war, a measure in the European Council aimed at granting immediate, collective and harmonized temporary protection to Ukrainians fleeing the war with full freedom of installation, emergency accommodation, temporary residence permit that gives immediate access to the job market, health services, children’s education and housing.
The Council of Europe Development Bank estimates that the cost of supporting refugees from Ukraine by 2022 will range between 30,000 and 43,000 million euros. However, according to the Voice of Ukraine online poll conducted in January by the Kantar Public polling institute, “only” 62% are satisfied with the EU aid.