Ukraine refugees must be shared across EU, says Germany

Brussels  — Germany called on Monday for a more even distribution of Ukrainian refugees in the EU, after about 3.8-million people fled Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on their country and crossed into the 27-nation bloc.

Since Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24 the fighting has displaced more than 10-million people and forced nearly 4-million to flee Ukraine in Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War 2, according to the UN refugee agency.

Most have arrived in Poland, which says it has welcomed 2.3-million people so far. Ukraine’s other EU neighbours, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary, have also seen high arrivals of Ukrainian refugees, the vast majority of whom are women and children.

“We need to more actively distribute refugees within the EU and show solidarity by taking in refugees,” German interior minister Nancy Faeser told reporters in Brussels, where interior ministers of all EU countries met to discuss the situation.

Poland, with population of 38-million people, Austria and the Czech Republic are under the biggest pressure, according to an index prepared by the EU’s executive based on the number of refugees, as well as the size of population.

Germany — with more than 80-million people, the biggest EU country — says it has registered more than 270,000 Ukrainian refugees, compared with about 30,000 who have entered France, the bloc’s second-biggest member.

Spain has taken about 25,000 people, while the much smaller Austria and Lithuania have received 35,000 each. About 13,500  refugees have filed documents in Ireland. The Czech Republic has received 300,000 Ukrainians, almost 3% of its population.

“The wave is huge, and we have to anticipate that it’s not over yet. Now we are counting on the solidarity of other EU countries,” said Czech interior minister Vit Rakusan, warning his country was running out of appropriate reception sites.

The ministers discussed sharing information and synchronising databases, as well as transporting refugees further west in the EU, a bloc of 450-million people.

Warsaw, Prague and Vilnius called for financial aid, while other EU countries stressed refugees must be properly registered on arriving in the EU for states to be able to prepare the necessary housing and schools, as well as for safety reasons.

No quotas 

EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson said police must also check and register scrupulously those picking up refugees 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,” echoed Ireland’s Helen McEntee.

EU officials 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 2015/2016.

More than 1-million Syrians reached Europe then, leaving the 27 bitterly at odds over welcoming them. These feuds have led to the collapse of the bloc’s joint asylum system and damaged EU unity, turning migration into a hot-button issue.

Johansson said about 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.

“If we end up with figures doubling or tripling, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and others won’t be able to handle this any more,” said a senior EU diplomat.

Reuters