Time for a zero refugee policy? - *Read OP for mod warnings - updated 11/5/24*

Nobody realised that the war would go on for years. The assumption was that it would somehow end by August or September 2022 with a ceasefire and that life in Ukraine would slowly return to normal. All of this stuff about Ukrainian people being supposedly a major 'burden' on Ireland only began to kick off in the media and elsewhere in late 2023, early 2024 - a good 18 months or more after the war started.

it’s about time that these crazy benefits were stopped

The Council adopts the EU's pact on migration and asylum

• Today the Council adopted a landmark reform of the European asylum and migration system. This establishes a set of rules that will help to manage arrivals in an orderly way, create efficient and uniform procedures and ensure fair burden sharing between member states.
• Member states will now have two years to put the laws that were adopted today into practice. The European Commission will soon present a common implementation plan to provide assistance to member states in this process.

Ireland abstaining is more political than OPT-IN/OPT-OUT at this stage of the vote, EU elections pending.

Switzerland, the most famous neutral country of all (and the most expensive) pays on average 500 Swiss francs / €510 per month to Ukrainians

On average, the country pays about 500 Swiss francs for an adult and 250 francs for a child, but no more than 2000 francs for a family.

For example, Maryna Gomeniuk, a refugee from Ukraine, said that she received 1650 francs for two adults and two children. She also noted that the canton can additionally reimburse the cost of tickets.

If Maryna had to have been in Ireland she would got €2136 / 2093 Swiss francs monthly for the two adults & two children.

Not only that, according to the article, Switzerland are likely to start giving Ukrainians incentives (money) to go back home, while in Ireland, we’re only starting to discuss the likelihood of us cutting the most generous welfare in Europe to the majority of Ukrainians we have living here.

Same with our dog, we bring her to France every year, so I'm very familar with the pet passport and pet travel in and out of Ireland process.

No dog, cat, ferret can land in UK or Ireland without this passport ie. Microchip, rabies vaccine & health check by vet. Ukraine pets were not given a choice, if they wanted to bring their pet into Ireland, they had to get the vaccine, chip, register, etc. At the port of entry. The exception was they had to keep the pet away from other animals for 21 days (the period the vaccines requires to become effective). They had to keep their pets in their temporary accomidation / back garden for 21 days minimun, and could be subject to random checks by Dept of Agriculture officals during that 21 day period to ensure they complied.

I have no issue with our government paying for cost of refugee's pets, they are part of their family.

The point I was making is that our government can manage, register, trace pets coming into the country to ensure full compliance, but can't seem to do the same with people.

Hopefully, but at the point that they are at Calais it's just whack a mole as they'll continue to pop up wherever they are tolerated. We really,really just need a common sense policy at EU level and no more shopping around for the best deal.

God only knows what all this is costing in terms of policing and endless immigration tribunals not to mention feeding, housing and clothing all these people.

I'm just asking constructively GG, but can you please lay out your posts better? One line paragraph after another is a really uninviting read. And I'm sorry, but this thread could have the most pro-Immigration title possible, I'm afraid it's not going to change the theme. The public opinion has been influenced by:

• Public's taxes being squandered on IPA's abusing the system
• Hotels closing to the public, tourism on its knees, jobs lost
• "No community has a veto on who lives beside them" *except the more affluent areas apparently
• Government gaslighting. The very same opinions branded as "racist/far-right" two years ago, are finding their way into "sensible" government policies now.
• The countries leading the IPA league table, where no wars are happening. Where Irish people go on Holidays.
• etc. (seriously, I could go all day)

The vast majority of the public have had enough as recent polls show, just like same majority here have had enough as the comments/likes will show.

A 38% reduction for that kind of outlay? You think that's effective?

The EU also lobbied middle-eastern airlines not to fly direct to Minsk in the same time so perhaps this played a part in the reduction.

It would seem workarounds have been developed for this too, with many now flying to Moscow and then travelling to the Polish border, perhaps explaining the decreasing effectiveness.

https://balkaninsight.com/2023/07/19/how-smugglers-bring-migrants-into-eu-despite-polands-new-wall-on-belarus-border/

Perhaps the animals are stopped now, but initially for the first year, animals were allowed through to Ireland without the necessary treatment and vaccinations. They were told to present themselves to a vet and then the tab collected by the state when the animal had got what was needed. I suspect many many animals belonging to Ukrainians are still around in this country without been taken to a vet.

And I object wholly to it being free, and now especially. Completely no need for it.

That's more or less as how I read it. And it's a good bit past time to correct this course. As Jim O'Callaghan said earlier, it'll be tough on those who have been getting max benefits but the state also has a duty to manage it's own finances fairly and to bring us more into line both with those who've arrived more recently and with other EU states.

There will be a lot of hard luck/ sob stories coming up in the media both from Ukrainians and those representing them but there's a new reality and a readjustment needed.

What of those living in rooms with householders being paid €800 a month tax free I think. Ideal setup to work from home, office & accommodation paid for. Meanwhile pushed up the rates for long suffering parents from down the country paying for students whilst at college. There are multiple facets to the rising dissatisfaction with how this is panning out and affecting the middle classes.

Why would you think it unlikely there’s many working remotely here? I would imagine many Ukrainian organizations made allowances for staff to work remotely (a bit like how companies here made accommodations for WFH during the pandemic). Ukraine is not shut down - in many, many places it’s business as usual, and they still need staff to keep the company running. Why wouldn’t a single IT worker, for example, move here while still working remotely?

Assuming this person legally has employment and payed whatever the equivalent income taxes are in Switzerland and given the unemployment is time limited, how is that in anyway comparable?

Plus a good Ukrainian IT worker doesn’t have to be limited to working for a Ukrainian company, they could work for any company based anywhere.

Page 1 , no anecdotes.