"We have 800 Ukrainians who have arrived on French soil" while their country has been under fire from Russian weapons for almost a week.
Asked about France Inter, Gérald Darmanin announces the presence of several hundred Ukrainian refugees who are sometimes only in “transit to Spain or to England.
According to the Minister of the Interior, "France will play its full part" in welcoming refugees.
“There is not a large Ukrainian community in France”, assesses the minister who details: “17,000 Ukrainians have a residence permit for example, there are large communities elsewhere in Europe”.
Darmanin announces weekly meetings with the prefects to organize this welcome.
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According to him, Brexit causes a break in “continuity with Great Britain, which sometimes refuses visas.
He explains that the country "will set up a kind of consulate in Calais to allow Ukrainians to be able to join their families in Great Britain, in accordance with the words of Boris Johnson".
Gérald Darmanin notes that “several dozen Ukrainians have already presented themselves since yesterday in Calais, or in front of the tunnel and the port.
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"All those who come from Ukraine will be welcomed in Europe"
While a new Council of Interior Ministers is being held this Thursday in Brussels, the agenda will focus on a 2001 directive, “which had already been used for Kosovo”.
It is a “temporary protection for Ukrainians”, “a form of asylum, very quickly triggered”, valid “for six months, renewable up to three years”.
This temporary protection will make it possible in particular to “offer them benefits, material aid”.
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Leaving Ukraine on Saturday, Ania took refuge in Paris with her mother and her 5-year-old son
"There is no difference" between Ukrainian refugees and others, says Gérald Darmanin.
“Asylum is constitutional, France defends it in Europe and in its country, provided that it is related to a situation of war or persecution”, he also says.
“All those who come from Ukraine will be welcomed in Europe”.
