EU to continue accepting Ukrainian refugees as long as necessary – European Commissioner Johansson.

The European Union managed to cope with the record migration crisis after the Second World War caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Europe is ready to continue accepting Ukrainian refugees, if necessary, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said during a joint government meeting Ukraine and the European Commission in Kyiv on Thursday.

The European Commissioner said there are many problems to be solved, but this is also a success story. She said this is one of the things that Putin really underestimated: the European Commission has dealt with all Ukrainian refugees and the European Union is not afraid of the refugee crisis and will continue to do this for as long as necessary, Johansson said.

She said the EU activated the Temporary Protection Directive for the first time, as with such a flow of refugees, immediate protection was needed, and it was not realistic to process individual applications under the standard procedure.

Johanson also said given the large number of women and children, all measures against human trafficking were taken from the very beginning, a special task force of Europol was created, as a result of which the number of facts of such trafficking is really small, and these efforts will be continued, since vulnerability still remains.

Among other special tasks, she named 30,000 unaccompanied minors, some 5,000 children from orphanages.

The European Commissioner said now more than 4 million Ukrainians are in the European Union, and since April 2022 the situation is quite stable: someone returns to Ukraine, someone arrives in Europe.

Johanson said this autumn the Commission started with contingency planning because if Putin starts bombing energy, water supply, people will have to flee. They were ready, the official said.

She once again said if necessary, the European Union is ready to accept more Ukrainians. The European Commissioner said they have shown Putin that they are not panicking.

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