Government adopts measures to host and integrate Ukrainian citizens

The Council of Ministers approved a Resolution with simplified requirements for people who fled Ukraine to obtain temporary protection, announced the Minister of State and Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, at the conference following the meeting. 

At the same time, "the Government has been working with the municipalities, civil society organisations, private charities and the Ukrainian community in Portugal to respond to the fundamental needs of housing, legalizing their situation" and jobs for these citizens.

"This process will be similar to what he had in August due to the situation in Afghanistan, and yesterday we had housing available for 1245 people", she said, adding that it is necessary for the housing and jobs to be in the same region, for there to be schools for children and "looking to not only host but also integrate" [these citizens].

Hosting Ukrainian citizens

The Minister of Home Affairs, Francisca Van Dunem, said that the temporary protection scheme will be applied, a European scheme that has existed in Portugal since 2003 where the concrete risk assessment on a case-by-case basis is dismissed.

"An overall decision is made assuming that all those people are under an imminent threat on their life or physical integrity, or their human rights have been violated. This confirmation that the Government sets in the Council of Ministers Resolutions allows it to issue special permits to the people who come to our country via a simplified process", she noted.

It is no longer necessary "for the person to have the burden of proving he or she is in danger" and the proof of identity can be done in any way. The State will have controls to check for people who are a threat "to internal and national security based on the Schengen system data", the European system to control borders in the EU countries that are part of Schengen.

The Minister said that people who represent risks to internal security, who have committed crimes against humanity, or serious crimes, will not be taken in. 

"This protection will last initially for one year and can be extended by two six-month periods, as long as the conditions that keep the people from returning to their country are met" Francisca Van Dunem added.

Integration

The Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, claimed that the Government set up "a programme that allows Ukrainian citizens arriving to be hosted and integrated", where they have "access to a taxpayer, Social Security and National Health Service number, granting them access to several services".

This "also allows them to work and the Government has surveyed job opportunities with the companies, through a working group at the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training that is focused on matching job opportunities with Ukrainian citizens’ job profiles".

Ana Mendes Godinho also claimed that "a platform was created (on the Institute for Employment’s website) for companies to upload the opportunities they have available and the job profiles they seek – more than two thousand job offers have been uploaded –, and we are communicating these job offers to the Ukrainian community through international websites", namely in Ukrainian.

The Institute for Employment and Vocational Training established "a working group to help people in a personalised way so there is real capacity to integrate the labour market", aligned with programmes to support with hiring and customised training programmes, as well as responding to the need for Portuguese language courses.