Ireland, struggling to shelter Ukrainians, halts visa-free travel for other refugees – POLITICO

DUBLIN — Eire has suspended visa-free journey for refugees coming from a lot of Europe in a bid to make more space for Ukrainians.

Monday night time’s announcement comes after Eire, already internet hosting greater than 43,000 Ukrainians, ran out of beds earmarked for brand spanking new Ukrainian arrivals as a result of they have been being taken by refugees from different nations.

Because of this, a whole lot of Ukrainians, largely ladies and youngsters, who’ve landed in Eire since Thursday have ended up sleeping on the floor of a disused Dublin Airport constructing and, beginning Tuesday, will likely be briefly sheltered at an Irish army-erected tent village north of the capital.

Dublin has blamed these issues on an unexpectedly robust circulate of non-Ukrainian refugees arriving from the remainder of Europe, with present volumes at present double pre-pandemic norms.

The federal government has cited Britain’s threats to deport newly arrived asylum-seekers to Rwanda as one issue driving extra individuals to Eire.

Nonetheless, its choice received’t have an effect on refugee flows from Britain. As a substitute, it is going to cease visa-free journey for refugees coming from 20 different nations: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

All are, like Eire, signatories to the Council of Europe’s Settlement on the Abolition of Visas for Refugees, a 1960 pact that allows individuals in search of refugee safety in a single signatory nation to journey to different signatory nations for as much as three months and not using a visa.

The settlement offers members the choice to droop its operation. That is the primary time Eire has completed so.

“In latest months, we now have seen that the visa exemption offered for within the Council of Europe settlement is being exploited,” mentioned Justice Minister Helen McEntee.

Some visiting refugees “enter the state and subsequently declare worldwide safety, regardless of having already been granted such safety by one other European state,” McEntee mentioned.

For not less than the subsequent 12 months, she mentioned, such refugees will likely be allowed to journey to Eire provided that issued a visa.

International Minister Simon Coveney careworn that the change “will help within the safety of Ukrainians, and people of different nationalities, who’re fleeing battle, as it is going to reduce the incidence of abuse of this method.”