MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2023) The European Council has decided to suggest extending the temporary protection status of around 4 million Ukrainian refugees till March 2025, with the offer to be officially voiced during Spain's presidency of the European Council in the second half of 2023, El Pais newspaper reported on Monday, citing a senior EU source.
The temporary protected status provides Ukrainian refugees with the right to live and legally work in the EU member states for a year, the report said. The mechanism was established back in 2001 amid the Balkan crisis, but was not triggered in practice till the start of the Ukraine conflict last year.
Brussels plans to offer on March 8 an extension of the refugees' temporary protection for the second year, the source told El Pais, though adding that further perspectives for the legal status were not clear. The source said it was also unclear whether the prolongation of the protection status would be valid for Ukrainians only or for refugees of other nationalities as well.
The newspaper reported that the number of refugees who had fled Ukraine and had other than Ukrainian citizenship amounted to about 270,000 people. They are mostly Turkish, Russians and Indians.
In early March 2022, the Council of the European Union activated a specific protocol allowing� immediate temporary legal protection to be provided to refugees from Ukraine. This also enabled their admission to the labor market and the health care system. The Council of the European Union stated that the decision had been aimed at alleviating pressure on Ukraine's neighboring countries and distributing Ukrainian citizens more equally so they could make use of their rights in all of the EU countries.
