In Poland, an amendment to the law on Ukrainian refugees is being prepared, according to which they will be obliged to pay for state-provided housing in the future. The competent authorities have been working on the amendment for two months, the draft can be approved by the Council of Ministers within two weeks, RBK-Ukraine reported with reference to ukrayina.pl.
The draft refers to hostels and hotels where 80,000 refugees are currently staying. "It is impossible for Ukrainians to stay in such places for several months, it is out of the question for even a year. We need to create the conditions for hostels and hotels to function normally in Poland," said Karolina Lukasiewicz, an employee of the Center for Migration Studies at the University of Warsaw.
His expert explained that more and more often situations occur when refugees work and can make a decent living, but the state covers the costs of their stay. In the meantime, the authorities are considering partial payment of housing for refugees: the elderly, the disabled and single mothers with many children would be exempted from payment. Professor Maciej Duszczyk, an employee of the Center for Migration Studies at the University of Warsaw, said that the situation of Poles and Ukrainians must be equalized, the latter cannot depend on state aid.
The amendment avoids political exploitation and accusations by right-wing groups that Poles live without electricity and Ukrainians live in three-star hotels for free, the professor said. At the end of August, it was estimated that approximately 2.2 million Ukrainians lived in Poland: nearly 1 million refugees and approximately 1.2 million Ukrainian citizens who already lived and worked in Poland before the war.
Source: TV21 Ungvár
Image: Karpataljalap.net
