The Minister of the Interior is convinced that Estonia must express solidarity in the current situation and do everything in its power to help Ukraine.
The past months have shown that Ukraine is not able to manage the internal displacement of persons on its own. According to the Minister of the Interior, several European Union Member States, along with Estonia, are currently revising the requirements for granting asylum to Ukrainian refugees. “In my opinion, Estonia could allow granting residence permits on humane grounds, similarly to Finland, for example,” said Pevkur.
“This legal amendment would make granting asylum more humane and would allow us to simplify and speed up the acceptance of refugees who currently fail to meet the requirements for being granted asylum but who, for example, have relatives living in Estonia,” emphasised Pevkur.
According to the information collected by Police and Border Guard Board experts, it would currently be justified to grant asylum to at least ten people, considering the domestic situation in Ukraine. The Police and Border Guard Board examine each request for asylum separately and make the decisions regarding granting asylum as soon as possible.