Czech Republic Extends Temporary Protection for Ukrainian Refugees Until 2025
The lower house of the Czech Parliament has approved the extension of temporary protection for individuals who left Ukraine due to the Russian invasion until March 2025. This information was reported by the Novinky publication.
Deputies voted on Friday, 1 December, to extend temporary protection in the Czech Republic for Ukrainian refugees for another year. The document will now go to the Senate for approval and, once passed, will await the signature of President Petr Pavel.
The project received support from coalition representatives and the opposition movement ANO, while the right-wing SPD failed to push through the rejection of the bill.
"The main goal of the proposal is to create a mechanism for extending protection until the end of March 2025, in line with a pan-European decision to which we are responding in our legal system," stated Minister of the Interior Vít Rakušan during a plenary session.
The temporary protection system allows Ukrainian refugees to access state medical insurance, education, and employment opportunities.
To extend the duration of temporary protection, Ukrainian refugees must register online by March 15 of the following year. During registration, Ukrainian citizens must choose a date for a personal visit to the Ministry of the Interior, where they will receive a visa sticker to confirm their temporary protection. Meanwhile, the deputies have introduced an amendment limiting the time refugees can stay in free temporary housing.
Earlier, EU countries agreed to extend the mechanism of temporary protection for refugees from Ukraine for one year, from March 4, 2024, to March 4, 2025.
This week, the lower house of the Czech Parliament also supported the decision to extend the mission of training Ukrainian military personnel in the coming year. On November 29, during a plenary session, Czech deputies finally approved the corresponding proposal to engage the forces and resources of the Ministry of Defense in foreign operations and the presence of armed forces of other states on the territory of the Czech Republic in 2023 and 2024. The priority of this proposal is to facilitate the conditions for the continued training of Ukrainian military personnel within the territory of the Czech Republic and beyond.