Temporarily protected Ukrainians contributing billions to the Czech state, Labor Ministry plans more restrictions on their support
In the Czech Republic, the temporarily protected Ukrainian citizens who are currently employed will end up contributing between CZK 12 and 15 billion [EUR 488 and 610 million] in salary deductions to the state this year. As of 11 September, a total of 113,000 such temporarily protected persons had formal jobs.
Czech Labor Minister Marian Jurečka (Christian Democrats – KDU-ČSL) announced the figures at a press conference after a cabinet meeting. The Labor Ministry is drafting another amendment to the Lex Ukrajina law regulating aid to the temporarily protected, the seventh such adjustment.
According to the minister, the new norm will extend the opportunity for financial support to be provided and adjust the conditions of its disbursal. The rules were most recently tightened in July.
According to Interior Ministry data, as of midnight on 10 September there were 367,700 adults and children holding temporary protection visas in the Czech Republic. Most are children and women.
“As of Monday, more than 113,000 temporarily protected persons were working. That number has continued to grow since the start of July, when we made the rules for support more strict – that’s more than 9,000 additional people in the Czech labor market,” Jurečka said.
The Labor Minister added that according to average estimates for this year, the state will gain between CZK 12 and 15 billion [EUR 488 and 610 million] from temporarily protected workers. “It is necessary to also view this through the lens of the very strong contribution by working Ukrainian refugees to all of Czech society,” he said.
Jurečka noted that the immigrants are applying themselves in firms and in the health care, services and social care sectors. Financial support to the temporarily protected changed as of July.
Temporarily protected persons who are able to work will be provided accommodation by the state for free for just five months. The solidarity contribution to households receiving immigrants is no longer being paid.
Humanitarian aid benefits will just be paid to temporarily protected households which can prove their incomes are below the subsistence minimum and cannot cover the costs for housing as regulated. Organizations aiding such persons criticized that decline in financial support and its setup.
Those organizations warned that the temporarily protected would lose their housing and predicted that the numbers of such people working illegally would increase. “The system is set up quite well, efficiently, it is motivational. It is fair and just,” the Labor Minister said at the press conference.
The temporary protection in the Czech Republic granted so far will last until the end of March 2024. The EU has since agreed that the deadline will be extended by one year.
Last week the Czech Government approved a sixth amendment to Lex Ukrajina which provides temporary protection through March 2025. The amendment will be discussed by Parliament and, if adopted, signed into law by the President.
The Labor Ministry is also drafting a seventh amendment on social aid to the temporarily protected. Jurečka said the law is meant to facilitate the provision of financial support for another year as well.
Data on the disbursal of humanitarian aid benefits and the incomes of temporarily protected households will be assessed for the first month after the introduction of the changes in July and the new rules will be adjusted based on that information. According to the Labor Minister, the adjustments should be “quite mild, probably”.
