Ukrainian refugees living in Ireland to be given financial support to return home

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Today with David McCullagh 10 min 2 speakers 4 chapters transcribed 4 months ago

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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

David McCullagh 0:00

Today with David McCullough on RTE Radio 1. Now, refugees from Ukraine are to get a payment from Ireland once they return home in plans being drawn up by the government. It's part of a plan to encourage voluntary repatriation of Ukrainians with financial support, which will only be paid once they've relocated back to their home country. I'm joined now in studio by Colm Brophy, Fine Gael TD for Dublin South West and Minister of State for Migration.

What financial support is being offered to Ukrainian refugees returning home?

David McCullagh 0:26

Minister, good morning to you. Good morning. Thanks for coming in. What is the status of this proposal at this stage?

Colm Brophy 0:30

Well, the status of this proposal is there was a sub-cabinet meeting And we looked at a number of things in that, which were all about moving from and transitioning from the situation we have at the moment, which is temporary protection, and looking at how Ireland would be managing in terms of people, Ukrainians, who are living here with us and going into the years ahead. So part of that, and it's a proposal that will go to government and the Cabinet will look at it and they will make their decision. would be to create for the Ukrainian community a number of options. One of them that you've just mentioned would be this returns option, which would be that for Ukrainians who wanted to go back to Ukraine.

Colm Brophy 1:12

Very important, by the way, to recognise the Ukrainian government is very anxious in supporting this because they want Ukrainian people to return to help with rebuilding the country. 1.2 million Ukrainians have already returned. But they would receive a payment from Ireland which would enable and facilitate them if they were making a decision to go back to Ukraine. How much? That hasn't been decided because where we're at at the initial stage of this is actually looking at the broader brushstrokes of how we would. So there's three ideas which we're particularly looking at. There is that returns proposal. There is also when temporary protection would end.

What is the current status of the proposal for Ukrainian repatriation?

Colm Brophy 1:49

There's transitioning to Ukrainians having a status, a residency status in Ireland and looking at making that available. And there will also be a section which we will be working through to ensure that vulnerable Ukrainians also have additional protections if they're staying in the country.

David McCullagh 2:04

OK, the idea of Ukrainians returning to their home country, and obviously, as you say, there's reasons that the Ukrainian government would like to see them back because they need those people. Is it safe?

Colm Brophy 2:17

Well, the Ukrainian government believe, and they've been quite clear, that obviously they recognise the context that the war is still going on. But for the 1.2 million Ukrainians who have returned, they want to start the process, even now, of rebuilding. And they want to encourage people who feel that they can return safely and who feel that they can contribute to be able to do so. The Ukrainian government put in place with the European Union the idea of what they call hubs. And that would be within each EU member state. that they would, in conjunction with the member state, provide the information to Ukrainians who've left as to how they can safely return. And that's a very important part of what they, as a government, and we want to support them in doing that, want to see for the Ukrainian citizens who are here.

David McCullagh 3:00

OK, but we know why the Ukrainian citizens are here. They were fleeing. Vladimir Putin's illegal war. And we see on our television screen most nights the results of Vladimir Putin's attacks on civilians. Since the start of the war, there have been about 60,000 civilian casualties. Around 15,000 of them were killed. The rest were injured. Last year saw the highest civilian death toll since 2022, the year the war began. The UN says... This was driven not just by more fighting on the front line, but by the expanded use of long-range weapons which exposed civilians across the country to heightened risk. In the first week of this month, May alone, at least 70 civilians were killed and more than 500 injured.

David McCullagh 3:40

That doesn't sound safe.

Colm Brophy 3:41

Well, no war zone, by definition, is safe.