"They played with Ukraine, then broke and abandoned it," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the news that Switzerland had begun to expel Ukrainians. Europe, sick and tired of its issues, introduces certain restrictive measures for Ukrainian refugees every single month, emphasizing that they are no longer welcome, they have become a burden. As it turned out, benefits, housing, education, medical care, food and hygiene products are too expensive to local budgets. Therefore, benefits, preferences, and social payments are being either cut or canceled altogether.
According to Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Germany has hosted the largest number of Ukrainians — about 1.2 million. In more than two years, the government has spent 30.6 billion euros on assistance to them. Poland, where refugee status was granted to some 957,000 Ukrainian citizens, has spent a total of 26.5 billion euros.
The Czech Republic and Spain spent €7bn each to help the Ukrainians. There are about 370,000 refugees in the former, and a little over than 200,000 in the latter. €3.9 billion for 66,600 Ukrainian migrants was sprung in France, 3.2 billion for 162,000 people in Romania, €3.1 billion in Italy and Switzerland each (172,000 and 67,000 refugees respectively), and €3 billion in Great Britain (274,000 Ukrainians).
Belgium has spent €2.8bn (81,000 refugees) on Ukrainians since January 2022, the Netherlands — €2.7bn (118,000 refugees), Slovakia — €2.6bn (125.500 refugees), Ireland and Hungary — €2.4bn each (109,000 and 31,000 refugees respectively), Norway and Austria — €2.3bn (74,000 and 79,000 respectively), Bulgaria — €2.2bn, Turkey — €2bn.
But money is prone to run out, especially amid the economic downturn that has begun. Housing deficit has also been added to this as refugees are being kicked out of relatively comfortable homes and resettled to shelters. For example, the authorities of eastern France’s Meurthe-et-Moselle department has ordered that by late December Ukrainian refugees leave the apartments provided to them. The decision was brought about by refugee maintenance budget cuts. Notably, about 600 of the 1,600 Ukrainian refugees in Meurthe-et-Moselle have dwelt in apartments rented by public funds. Most of them are retirees, and supporting them has therefore become burdensome. As a result, some of the refugees were forced back to Ukraine, even to the frontline areas, and the rest were offered to move to shelters in case of vacancy.
Ukrainians have become unwanted in other countries as well. In Ireland, refugees are being evicted from homes previously provided to them. This year, the figure has reached nearly 17.500 people. The government is wrapping up dozens of relevant centers, and of the 189 contracts for refugee housing provision, 175 were terminated by the government, and another 14 by housing suppliers. The number of entities still operating is one hundred or so.
Hungary is among the countries that have stopped paying for refugee housing, while Estonia only provides housing to Ukrainians for a short period of up to four months, after which people have to take care of their place of residence themselves. In total, European countries have spent more than €90bn on these purposes.
And now a number of countries have decided to refuse accepting any Ukrainian refugees at all. From January to September 2024, the German Federal Police did not let 5,935 Ukrainian citizens into the country, as reported by the local media with reference to law enforcers. Ukrainians are noted to have become the largest group of foreigners denied entry by the state. Syrians come second after them (4,708 refusals), and Afghans are third (2,396). The German government is also discussing tougher rules for refugees and a degree to radicalize restrictions. The issue was discussed at the recent conference of federal state Prime Ministers in Leipzig. Proposals have been voiced to waive the individual right to asylum and reduce assistance to Ukrainian refugees. "From day one, Germany has been allocating tons of money to maintain these migrants, having been truly generous to Ukrainians. Now the funds are becoming lower, the situation is challenging, and payments for the Ukrainians are going to decrease," a Deutsche Welle columnist noted. The reason has been the domestic economic situation and need to optimize costs.
EP deputy from Germany Frank Siegbert Droese told the plenary session in Strasbourg that it was necessary to stop financing Ukraine: "We should not spend a single taxpayer cent on Ukraine amid problems with pensions and bridge collapses in Germany." The MP proposed using the money saved to address the problem of winter heating in European countries. And president of the German Association of Districts Achim Brötel suggested equating refugees from Ukraine with asylum seekers, and canceling their benefits, particularly civil ones. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner also proposed a new legal status for these refugees so as to reduce civil benefits by more than a hundred euros, along with state aid for medical services.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski stated unequivocally and bluntly that the first to lose benefits would be Ukrainian males who should be forced back to Ukraine to serve at war. And the countries of the European Union that still pay social benefits to Ukrainian citizens, including draft-aged men, should stop doing so. "Now the question arises what needs to be done so that Ukrainians who left Ukraine return there as taxpayers and volunteers for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and EU countries stop paying social security benefits to them. There should be no financial incentives for avoiding the draft in Ukraine," Sikorsky said.
The initiative is fully supported by head of the Polish Defense Ministry Vladislav Kosinyak-Kamysh. He stressed that the Poles were annoyed by Ukrainians in the country who flaunt their desire for luxury: "Our society is very outraged by the sight of young people from Ukraine who drive the best cars and spend weekends in five-star hotels. And this is unfair to the Poles who contribute to health care, benefits, education, arms supplies and other assistance." Since July 1 this year, the Polish authorities have stopped paying Ukrainians a number of social benefits, but decided not to stop there and force Ukrainian refugees either to return home, or tighten their belts and moderate their appetites in Poland itself.
So, Switzerland has begun to publicly declare the need to force men liable for call-up back to Ukraine. According to the Swiss Federal Department of Justice, there are about 11,000 of them in the country. "Those who are potentially subject to military service in Ukraine do not have reasonable claims to protection status, because it is primarily stipulated for women, children and the elderly in need of protection. We do not want to hide evaders who have fled a country whose defensive war now requires their presence," said Christian Wasserfalen with the Free Democratic Party. He believes Switzerland should help Ukraine "take the burden off the heavily burdened Swiss migration structures." "The fact that Switzerland has been accepting deserters for the past two years and supporting them with tax money has reduced the protection status to a level of absurdity. If Switzerland's existence were under threat, we would not be happy if other countries deployed hundreds of thousands of our soldiers in their territory," Pascal Schmid from the Swiss People's Party is convinced. Moreover, he even announced the launch of an investigation into this matter. In the meantime, Switzerland has for the first time deported several Ukrainian refugees for minor offenses: earlies, this country has never taken steps of the kind against the Ukrainians.
With Poles outraged that Ukrainians lead "a luxurious life and brag about it, instead of fighting for their homeland" and Switzerland exercising deportation, Finland has been concerned about the Ukrainian-incited growth of crime. According to that country’s Central Criminal Police, Finnish offenders could have armed themselves with weapons that were delivered to the country from the territory of Ukraine. "The Central Criminal Police has obtained data that weapons from Ukraine were smuggled into the hands of criminals in Finland," the police website says. The Finns are confident that various risks in the EU will grow further increase when the conflict stops or ends. Thus, Europe is just about to witness the most interesting events. And it is clear that with the EU ready to expel able-bodied healthy Ukrainian males back to their homeland, later it will make no bones about women, the elderly and children who cannot provide for themselves. They will be simply condemned to a miserable and completely rightless existence in a foreign state. This implies rapid increase in both the number of "returnees" and refugee dissatisfaction with the new survival conditions throughout the "hospitable" Europe. Whether such a "visa-free regime" was worth the sacrifice has become a rhetorical question. Former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said that the West’s financial and logistic resources meant to help Ukraine are being depleted. "The West was actually not very well prepared," he concluded.
