The risk of mass deportation of Ukrainians fleeing a full-scale Russian invasion stems from the government's long delay in deciding whether to extend the group protection granted in February 2022.
The then-Interior Minister, Ayelet Shaked, announced that Israel would provide temporary protection to 20,000 Ukrainian refugees, most of whom were in the country without legal status before the war, as well as an additional 5,000 Ukrainians who fled the country due to hostilities.
The initial residence permit was issued for three months, after which refugees received residence and work permits that required annual renewal. Although the permit expires next month, Israel has not yet decided whether it will be extended, the journalists said.
In the absence of a sitting interior minister, who initially established group protection as a temporary measure, authority over the issue has shifted to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Haaretz writes. Several human rights non-profit organizations have petitioned Population and Immigration Director General Boaz Yosef and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miare to extend the temporary protection, the article said.
Context
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in Europe registered more than 5.33 million Ukrainians who left Ukraine due to the invasion of the aggressor country Russia.
On August 28, the head of the migration policy office, Vasily Voskoboinik, said that up to 70% of migrants may never return to Ukraine.
In November, the director of the Mikhail Ptukha Institute of Demography and Social Research, Ella Libanova, said that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor country of the Russian Federation from the country 12 million people left.
