German government rejects calls for jobless Ukrainian refugees to be deported

The German government has rejected the idea that Ukrainian refugees who are not willing to work should be deported.

As reported by n-tv, a Foreign Ministry representative in Berlin noted that deportations are impossible when Russia is attacking Ukraine’s civilian facilities on a daily basis and attempting to destroy the infrastructure in the country's west.

"So I don’t know where in Ukraine is supposed to be a safe place," the representative emphasised in response to the demand made by Alexander Dobrindt, leader of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU).

"More than two years after the outbreak of the [full-scale] war, the principle now applied should be: get a job in Germany or return to the safe areas of western Ukraine," Dobrindt said earlier.

Earlier, it was reported that the JobTurbo programme for the accelerated integration of Ukrainians into the German labour market had attracted about 33,000 people, six times fewer than the German government expected.

German Federal Minister of Labour Hubertus Heil called on employers to hire Ukrainian refugees who have not yet mastered German at the proper level but have basic knowledge of the language.

A number of politicians in Germany have called for the standard unemployment benefits for Ukrainian refugees, known as "citizens’ income" (Bürgergeld), to be withdrawn.