Revealed: 14,528 Ukrainian Refugees – Ineligible for Right of Return – Currently in Israel

YERUSHALAYIM
Cots are set out on a school basketball court in Zahony, Hungary, to accommodate Ukrainian refugees, in March. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

​During Tuesday’s meeting of the Knesset’s Labor and Welfare Committee it was revealed that 14,528 refugees from Ukraine, who are not eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, are currently residing in Israel. The vast majority of these refugees are women.

Committee Chair MK Efrat Rayten Marom (Labor) said the initial expectation was that tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands, of refugees from Ukraine would relocate to Israel, but the entry requirements to Israel were tightened for fear of a “flood” of non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees seeking asylum in Israel.

Population and Immigration Authority official Moshe Schweitzer noted that 32,000 Ukrainian nationals have entered Israel since the war began, including some 5,000 who have entered with aliyah permits. Some 8,000 Ukrainian nationals have left Israel since the war began, including people who are eligible under the Law of Return. 38,000 people came to Israel from Russia, including 5,000 with aliyah permits. 19,000 of those who came to Israel from Russia since the beginning of the war have left Israel. Of the 38,000 people who have relocated to Israel since the war broke out, some 12,000 are eligible under the Law of Return. Some 12,000 to 15,000 Ukrainian nationals are residing in Israel illegally, but no measures will be taken against them, or their employers, until the end of the month.

An official from the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services said that since the outbreak of fighting in Ukraine some 100 days ago, 21,000 people who not are eligible under the Law of Return have entered Israel, of whom 14,528, including 10,700 women, have remained in Israel. Some 3,000 of them are under the age of 18. The ministry, said the official, has so far issued some 4,000 health insurance policies for people aged 60 and above who have relocated to Israel during this time. The ministry also provides these immigrants with monthly food vouchers worth NIS 700 each. The cost of proving the food vouchers has so far amounted to roughly NIS 7 million.

Adv. Yona Cherki, legal adviser at the Israeli Immigration Policy Center, called to provide education to refugee children that is adjusted to their native tongue and culture, in order to ease their return to their home country, if and when they go back. “Any attempt to make them half or a third Israeli will only leave them confused about their identity,” he argued.

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