The European Union is attempting to persuade Ukrainian migrants to leave Poland and seek asylum in other EU countries. As a result of the 3.8 million migrants who have fled Ukraine, Poland now hosts more refugees than any other EU country.
Poland has taken in over 2 million refugees, as per the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). According to EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johnasson, about 1.5 million people stayed in Poland.
“It is significant to incentivize Ukrainians to leave Poland to go to other members,” she mentioned in a statement on Monday, March 28, ahead of a meeting of interior ministers, stressing that 1 million had already done so.
In the meanwhile, it’s unclear how the European Union intends to persuade them to leave Poland. However, a plan put up by Germany and Poland proposes to charge each Ukrainian immigrant a fixed price of €1,000 for the first six months of their stay.
Johansson was evasive when asked if the commission would back such a proposal, instead stating that they are looking into ways to notify Poles that they would be granted equal rights abroad.
She also stated that the commission is considering making European Union funding available to member states bordering Ukraine immediately, as well as further cash in the future.
Further she highlighted, only roughly 800,000 of the 3.8 million Ukrainian refugees who have fled the country have asked for temporary asylum in the EU.
The protection is a European Union programme that provides Ukrainian refugees with residency and work permits until March of next year.
On Monday, the interior ministries of France and Greece announced that each country had documented 15,000 people. This is more than double the number of people who have registered in Hungary.
According to the UNHCR, 350,000 Ukrainians have fled to Hungary. However, as of March 23, just about 6,000 have been registered in Hungary.
In addition, Austria has roughly 35,000 people and Ireland has around 13,500.
