Czech Republic plans to encourage Ukrainian refugees to go home

This is reported by Radio Prague International.

This initiative is contained in the draft of the sixth amendment to the law known as the lex Ukrajina. This law regulates the rights and obligations of Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic.

The amendment provides for assistance and partial reimbursement of expenses for our citizens who decide to return to their homeland. The initiative will work when the Czech government decides on the type of support for which these funds will be allocated.

For those who stay, temporary protection will continue until the end of March 2025.

According to the Interior Ministry, the Czech Republic hosts 360,900 refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection visas, most of them women and children. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently urged host countries not to force refugees to return home.

There is a need to respond to the growing demand from foreigners for assistance in returning to Ukraine. Although the situation in Ukraine is largely unsatisfactory, it is appropriate to offer assistance to those interested in returning," the initiators of the amendment said.

In documents accompanying the argumentation for the draft law, they at the same time point out that the developments do not yet indicate that the war will soon end and refugees will be able to return to Ukraine.

According to the Voice of Ukrainians survey conducted by PAQ Research in cooperation with sociologists from the Czech Academy of Sciences, a quarter of refugees wanted to return home in June.

A year ago, the number of those who wanted to return was one-third of the respondents surveyed.

Half of the survey participants said that they definitely plan to stay abroad.