Jutland municipalities offer to take in more Ukrainians

Several municipalities in Jutland have offered to take in more displaced Ukrainians as municipalities around Copenhagen struggle to find housing and jobs, DR reports.

The mayors made the offer during a meeting in Copenhagen on Monday with Immigration and Integration Minister Morten Bødskov (S).

Last month, the minister announced that the government would change the rules so that people from parts of Ukraine less affected by the war with Russia would no longer receive residence permits.

Municipalities in the Copenhagen area have found it increasingly difficult to provide work and, especially, housing for the Ukrainians they are required to receive.

Those problems are not affecting several municipalities in Jutland, said Per Bach Laursen (V), mayor of Vesthimmerland. He said Ukrainians were bringing life and much-needed labour to the municipality.

Vesthimmerland already has Ukrainians who settled there before the war and have helped receive displaced people who arrived in recent years, he said.

Copenhagen receives about 30 displaced Ukrainians a week and will have no more capacity by May next year, according to Andreas Keil (S), the municipality’s mayor for employment, integration and business.

Keil personally wrote to the Jutland mayors to thank them for their offer. He said a new distribution of displaced Ukrainians would be a major help for Copenhagen.

Besides Vesthimmerland, the municipalities of Skive, Lemvig, Hjørring, Frederikshavn and Brønderslev are ready to take in more Ukrainians.

However, the Jutland municipalities want financial compensation to accompany any new distribution. Laursen said the Ukrainians arriving now may have lived through more difficult circumstances than those who came at the beginning of the war and may therefore need additional support.

Bødskov said funding must be clarified before a new distribution is arranged. Municipalities need help to report how many Ukrainians they can receive, he said, adding that their reports would be based on the costs involved.

The offer from the Jutland municipalities will not change the government’s plan to tighten the rules for Ukrainians entering Denmark. Bødskov said the government was changing the special law on Ukrainians’ residence because municipalities, particularly in the major cities and around Copenhagen, were struggling to manage the influx.

Nearly 48,000 displaced Ukrainians currently live in Denmark.