HOMEOWNERS ARE BEING urged to consider opening their homes and offering a spare room to newly arriving Ukrainians fleeing their war-torn home, in a renewed appeal from the Irish Red Cross.
More than 100,000 Ukrainians arrived in Ireland after the invasion of their home state by Russia more than two years ago. Since then, the Irish Red Cross has accommodated 10,842 people in more than 4,700 homes.
The NGO is now calling for more people to offer a room on their ‘safe homes’ programme, as an influx of Ukrainian people fleeing the war are arriving to Ireland without the opportunity to find decent State or private accommodation.
Ukrainians who were surveyed by the Irish Red Cross were found to have had an overwhelmingly positive experience and were satisfied with the arrangements which were extended to them by Irish homeowners.
Now, the Irish Red Cross is calling for more homeowners to make the same offer as accomodation and capacity reaches its limits in Ireland.
The charity’s head of International and migration, Niall O’Keeffe said: “We are appealing to the Irish public to once again open their hearts and homes to those who have fled Ukraine. This is a temporary measure and now more than ever newer refugees fleeing to safety here need our help.”
He directed people who are considering signing up to read up on how to pledge their spare room on their website.
The Irish Red Cross is also extending their call for more homeowners to pledge their spare rooms to include a plea to the State to have a more “sympathetic accreditation system” to allow Ukrainians with professional qualifications find better work.
According to the group, just 9% of Ukrainian people have found jobs which match their relevant qualifications while 30% said they are completely unable to work in their respective fields.
The charity said that the issues in re-certifying qualifications to meet an Irish standard are impeding on the cohort of those fleeing war getting into work.
They added that 12% of Ukrainian professionals have had difficulties re-certifying their qualifications and that 1 in 6 of the group have considered leaving Ireland due to the red tape around the issue.
O’Keefe said the State should be concerned that so many Ukrainians are unable to work in their field “due to lengthy red tape delays in receiving accreditation in their various skillsets and qualifications”.
“This is a serious missed opportunity to allow Ukrainians to integrate and contribute to the Irish economy, given the need to fill the many skill shortage gaps we have here, including in the medical, engineering and management sectors,” he said.
According to Ukrainian Action Ireland, 89% of Ukrainians have an undergraduate degree or have a qualification through an apprenticeship. The data also found that 93% were employed in Ukraine before being displaced by the war and 23% were business owners.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say