Israel's Interior Minister: Refugee situation 'cannot go on'
'We can't keep going at this rate; things need to be planned,' says Shaked
Israel's Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked said on Sunday that the flood of Ukrainian refugees "cannot go on" and that over 90 percent of those arriving are not Jewish.
According to Shaked, of the 2,034 Ukrainians who arrived in Israel since the war broke out, less than 10 percent are eligible for the Law of Return, allowing Jewish people Israeli citizenship.
“We will reach 15,000 Ukrainians in a month,” Shaked said, according to Haaretz.
"The State of Israel needs to do more in order to bring Jews and those eligible for the Law of Return. We can't keep going at this rate; things need to be planned.”
Shaked suggested that Israel likely took in "the most Ukrainian refugees per capita," excluding countries at Ukraine's border, Haaretz reported.
The minister stated that Israel has 26,000 Ukrainians who don't have Israeli citizenship - 13,000 don't have a visa, 2,500 on a tourist visa, 4,000 asylum seekers, and the rest on a work visa.
She added that authorities are preparing to take 100,000 Jewish people and their families from Ukraine and Russia who applied under the Law of Return.
"This is a very big challenge that we also expect in terms of housing and employment, and we need to prepare for it accordingly and take humanitarian care in a certain amount that we decide on in the coming days," Shaked said, according to Ynet.