The Ukraine crisis a year on: More refugees apply to extend visas

About 200,000 of the half million Ukrainians who fled to Czechia from their attacked country have asked for a one-year prolongation of temporary protection until March 2024, the government announced Monday.

Those who wish to have their visas extended must sort all necessary paperwork with Czech immigration police by the end of March. Online applications to extend the visas opened at the end of January.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started a year ago, the Czech Republic has granted about 500,000 temporary protection visas to Ukrainians – mainly women and children. The temporary protection visas provide the holders with access to public health insurance, education, and the labor market.

According to the latest estimates, there are over 300,000 documented Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic. About 6 in 10 Czechs support their acceptance.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Czechia has the largest number of refugees per capita in Europe.

At the end of last year, Minister of Finance Zbyněk Stanjura told iDnes that slightly over 1 percent of Czechia's entire annual expenditure has gone on Ukrainian refugees.

Out of all employed Ukrainian refugees in Czechia, seven out of 10 are women.

The majority of Ukrainian refugees work in manual, low-skilled jobs over 30 hours weekly. Examples of common roles are cleaners, assembly workers, helpers in construction, production, and transport.

Two-fifths of employed Ukrainians have jobs "well below their qualifications." About a half of technical and professional workers, and more than one in four refugees who were formerly in managerial and specialist positions, now work in auxiliary or blue-collar jobs.

Since gaining employment in Czechia, some Ukrainians have returned to their homeland and others have left their jobs. They mainly face language barriers in their search for more skilled jobs.

As Ukrainians continue to flee war and struggle to find well-paid employment in Czechia, the government recently announced a public campaign to help integrate Ukrainians into the Czech labor market in 2023.