Status: 04/29/2022 12:45 p.m
Significantly fewer people from Ukraine are arriving in Germany than a few weeks ago – and more and more are returning to their homeland. Interior Minister Faeser says those who remain are to be registered.
Fewer and fewer refugees from Ukraine are arriving in Germany. Their number had fallen from 15,000 people a day in mid-March to just around 2,000, said Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser to the broadcasters RTL and ntv. According to her, the Federal Police assumes that almost 390,000 people in Germany have fled the war in Ukraine.
However, the actual number is likely to be higher because Ukrainians can enter without a visa and, for example, with their own car, said Faeser. Registrations of people are currently being made up for. Also because this is the only way people can receive social benefits that can be paid out from June.
In total, more than five million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian attack on February 24.
Many go back
According to Faeser, more and more people are now returning to Ukraine. Around 20,000 people would return to the country every day across the Polish borders alone, including refugees who had previously sought protection in Germany.
“It scares you when you see the terrible pictures in Ukraine,” said the SPD politician. But she could “understand that they are going back for the purpose of family reunification, although that really breaks your heart.”
Union: Insufficient protection of women and children
The union accused the government of neglecting to protect women and children among the refugees. For example, it is not registered anywhere who takes in war refugees privately. Critics see potential dangers for women, children and unaccompanied minors, for example through sexual offences.
“The federal government is still not adequately meeting its responsibility towards the women and children arriving from Ukraine – it doesn’t even seem to understand it properly,” criticized CDU MP Serap Güler.
The domestic policy spokesman for the Union faction, Alexander Throm, accused the government of “diffusion of responsibility”: “The protection of women and children is pushed back and forth between a total of seven departments within the federal government; nobody really seems to feel responsible.”
Federal police: 42 suspected cases
Since the beginning of the war, the federal police have registered 42 cases of “suspicious perceptions or targeted speeches” by arriving refugees. “In the context of sex offenses and human trafficking, all the facts were below the threshold of a criminal act,” said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.