The government announced a month ago that it was investigating various accommodation options for the Ukrainians who fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion on February 24th. This included vulnerable residential areas.
Housing laws previously passed by the government and allied parties restrict the number of refugees from “non-Western” countries – which includes Ukraine under existing definitions – from being housed in underprivileged areas, formerly termed “ghettos”.
The parties behind the housing law, include the governing Social Democrats, the Socialist People’s Party, the Liberal Party, the Conservatives, the Danish People’s Party and the Liberal Alliance.
On Monday, the government will present a bill with amendments to the special law for displaced Ukrainians – the so-called Ukrainians Act. This will allow Ukrainians to live in underprivileged housing areas.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has, as you know, led to a huge influx of refugees. By far the largest in Europe since World War II.
“Approximately 23,500 Ukrainians have applied for a residence permit in Denmark under the special law in just two months”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration Mattias Tesfaye said.
“This is more than the number of asylum applications in the whole of 2015, which was a record year. Denmark must of course help Ukrainians who come here. In relation to this, municipalities have taken on a huge responsibility, for which I would like to thank them”, he added.
The adjustments in the legislation will also mean that the municipalities can deviate from the building legislation by temporarily using, for example, premises for day care, schools and institutions.
The government is working on a scenario where more than 100,000 refugees could come from Ukraine to Denmark.
Minister of the Interior and Housing Kaare Dybvad Bek initially stated that, as a starting point, it was not possible to accommodate Ukrainians in underprivileged housing areas, which are covered by a law on ‘parallel societies’, parallelsamfund.
If the bill is passed, the changes will be adopted on Thursday next week.
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