No more free help: they decided to make Ukrainians work in the Czech Republic

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Czech Republic has submitted a bill that tightens the rules for Ukrainian refugees with temporary protection when receiving humanitarian payments. This was reported in the press service of the department.

According to the bill, in order to receive assistance, adult applicants will have to work, engage in entrepreneurship or be registered with the employment service. In addition, the recipient of the allowance must stay in the Czech Republic for at least 16 days per month. The Ministry of Internal Affairs explained the changes by the need for "active participation" of aid recipients in meeting their own needs and combating abuse of the system.

"The minimum standard for the active approach of the recipient of the benefit to ensuring their own living needs is being established, while we are talking about a mechanism that is common in the field of long—term social assistance," the authors of the bill said in an explanatory note.

At the same time, it is emphasized that the new conditions will not apply, for example, to children, students and the elderly with temporary protection. According to the authors of the amendment, the establishment of a minimum period of actual stay in the Czech Republic should prevent possible abuses of humanitarian aid.

In addition, the amendment regulates the conditions for granting a special long-term residence permit, which allows refugees with temporary protection to obtain a more stable residence status. The requirements are tightened: among other conditions, the applicant must not have tax arrears.

The Ministry is also changing the rules of registration and biometric control. For example, if the applicant indicates false information in the questionnaire, his registration may be canceled. You can apply for a special status from last year. This year, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 56,500 people showed interest in it.

According to the amendment, temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic will be terminated in the future for people staying outside the Schengen area for more than 30 days. Also, the protection will be canceled in case of criminal or administrative expulsion of a person. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will also no longer issue travel documents and foreign passports to foreigners with temporary protection. Previously, this was possible if a person proved that he could not obtain documents from the authorities of his country. P

The amendment also concerns the terms of payment for medical insurance by the state for people with temporary protection. Until now, the state has paid for insurance for those whose serious health condition has not allowed them to work for a long time. According to the new proposal, such people will have to have an officially established degree of restriction of independence.

The package of changes also introduces the obligation for some drivers of cars with Ukrainian license plates to register a vehicle in the Czech registry. Until now, it was quite simple to report the car in the accounting system, and, according to the project, such cars did not pass the same technical checks as the rest of the cars. The possibility of registration will appear from January next year, and from January 2028 the operation of unregistered cars will be prohibited.

The law also provides for the abolition of exemption from fees for confirming foreign education for foreigners with temporary protection, and also toughens penalties for certain crimes related to illegal crossing of state borders. Some claims in asylum cases, for example, complaints due to deprivation of asylum, will now be considered exclusively by the Prague City Court.

Recall, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 386 thousand people with temporary protection were registered in the Czech Republic. Prime Minister Andriy Babysh announced a proposal to tighten conditions for Ukrainian refugees after a government meeting on May 18. According to him, the government may consider the bill as early as next week. In addition, Czech Interior Minister Lubomir Metnar said in a press release that the amendment takes into account the experience of recent years and the current security situation in Europe.