Dobrindt threatens unemployed Ukrainians with deportation

The CSU in the Bundestag is demanding that war refugees from Ukraine be sent back to their homeland if they do not find work in Germany. “More than two years after the start of the war, the principle must now apply: take up work in Germany or return to safe areas of western Ukraine,” said CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt to “Bild am Sonntag”. Dobrindt’s demand was sharply criticized by the SPD and the Greens.

SPD parliamentary group vice-chair Dirk Wiese told the newspaper that Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly bombs targets throughout Ukraine. “Dobrindt now wants to send women and children back here who may have already lost their fathers at the front. The CSU should be ashamed of such demands and should finally remove the C for Christian from its name.”

SPD labor market politician Martin Rosemann pointed out in the Bild am Sonntag that many of the Ukrainian refugees are single mothers: “The hurdles for Ukrainian refugees when starting their working lives are the lack of childcare, poor language skills and the lengthy recognition of professional qualifications.” He called the proposal to move them from the citizen’s allowance into the asylum process “populist nonsense.”

Green Party leader Omid Nouripour said: “The insinuation that Ukrainians are coming to us because of the citizen’s allowance ignores the horror of Putin’s war.” He also rejected the Union’s proposals not to grant Ukrainians citizen’s allowance immediately, but to first refer them to the regular asylum procedure. “Of course we have to get Ukrainians into work even faster. But new legal hurdles, like those the CDU wants, won’t help, they’ll do harm.”

Dispute over citizen’s allowance for war refugees from Ukraine

After the start of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022, the federal government decided that Ukrainian refugees do not have to apply for asylum in Germany. They are thus automatically granted a right of residence and receive citizen’s allowance and not asylum seeker benefits. Recently, several interior ministers had already called for the payment of citizen’s allowance to war refugees from Ukraine to be stopped and for them to only be granted lower payments under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. The federal government has already rejected this.

In the Union, Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) and Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) had previously spoken out against the payment of citizen’s allowance, especially to Ukrainian refugees of military age. FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai also demanded that newly arrived war refugees should receive asylum seeker benefits instead of citizen’s allowance.

The German exception for waiving asylum procedures for Ukrainians is based on a decision at EU level. According to the EU Mass Influx Directive, Ukrainians are generally considered to be in need of protection and do not have to go through an asylum procedure. According to government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, the validity of the exception was recently extended at EU level until March 2025.

Dobrindt joined in the criticism of the current regulation. The citizen’s allowance was intended as quick help at the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, but has long since become a brake on work, said the CSU politician. It keeps too many people from Ukraine on welfare. “We need stronger cooperation obligations for asylum seekers when it comes to taking up work. There must be an offer of work and this must be part of an integration effort,” added the CSU politician.