EU state tells Ukrainians they will have to go home

Denmark has said that once the conflict ends, the refugees need to leave

Ukrainian nationals who sought refuge in Denmark from the conflict with Russia won’t be welcome to stay once peace is restored, Immigration Minister Kaare Dybvad said on Friday.

There are over 30,000 Ukrainians who have applied for refugee status in Denmark under a special law, which is set to expire in March 2025. A poll conducted by the University of Copenhagen in September on a sample of 7,000 shows that around half would like to stay in the country even after the hostilities in Ukraine end.

Speaking with the daily Berlingske, Dybvad said this is out of the question and that they have to go back. 

“We will not change that point of view,” the minister stated, adding that refugees will continue to have temporary status, regardless of where they come from. Even if the Ukrainians are “culturally closer to us than people from the Middle East,” Dybvad claimed, they still behave in “completely different ways” than the Danes. 

The government in Kiev has been clear that it wants its citizens to return, Dybvad said, and Denmark “will have to respect that.”

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He allowed the possibility that some of the 30,278 Ukrainians currently registered as temporary residents might be able to stay past March 2025 if they meet certain conditions. If they earn more than 375,000 Danish kroner (approximately $55,400) a year, for example, they could apply for a business permit.

“I think they have the opportunity to stay to a reasonable extent, but we are not going to make an independent opening where we say that everyone who comes from Ukraine can stay in Denmark,” the minister said.

He rejected the idea that Denmark would be leaving the refugees in the lurch by requiring them to go back, noting that Copenhagen has contributed billions of dollars in aid to Kiev.

“We have nothing to be embarrassed about,” Dybvad said. “I hope that the Ukrainians are interested in rebuilding their own country, which needs it.”

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Around 5.8 million Ukrainians have left the country since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022, according to the UN. Many have expressed the desire to stay in the countries that gave them sanctuary even after peace is achieved. While most of the host countries have refused Kiev’s demands to send the fighting-age men home, they haven’t been enthusiastic about accepting the refugees as permanent immigrants. 

Earlier this week, Germany said that only around a third of Ukrainians who attended “integration courses” actually received a passing grade, while media investigations show the refugees prefer welfare to working.