A year of life at our expense

Almost a year ago, the Sejm adopted the “Act of 12 brand 2022 r. on assistance to Ukrainian citizens in connection with the armed conflict on the territory of this state", commonly known as the Special Act on Assistance to Ukraine. Poland has been a sponsor of Ukraine for almost a year, keeping its citizens in its territory, giving them a roof over their heads, food, health care, education and even social benefits.

I am writing about "citizens of Ukraine" and not about "refugees" because in the light of the law they are not. The status of the latter is determined by international standards, above all, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to her, refugees are people staying outside their country of origin because of fear of persecution, because of the conflict, violence or other circumstances seriously disturbing public order, which consequently require "international protection". These persons, pursuant to art. 14. of the aforementioned Universal Declaration of Human Rights have the right to seek and enjoy asylum. Only after meeting the above condition do they become “refugees” in the light of the law.

According to the Office for Foreigners, submitted applications for international protection in Poland by the end of September 7,4 thousand. foreigners. The o 40 proc. more people compared to the same period 2021 r. There was only a little more than that 1500 citizens of Ukraine. It is a drop in the sea of ​​migrants, which flooded Poland last year.

Back to our specustawy, it gave Ukrainian migrants numerous privileges. First of all, it legalized their stay on the territory of the Republic of Poland 18 months from the date 24 February 2022 r. It also facilitated obtaining a temporary residence permit, for a period of time 3 lat. Several days ago, the deputy head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Paweł Szefernaker, informed, that Ukrainians, who came to Poland after the start of the Russian invasion, they will be able from 1 April to apply for three-year and permanent residence in Poland. So we're not dealing with emergency help, and an attempt to permanently settle with us Ukrainians who came with the last wave of migration.

Migrants covered by the special act were granted specific rights and privileges. These included, among others, the right to health care and the right to social assistance for a period of time 18 months from the date 24 February 2022 r. The latter provision means in practice granting migrants the right to family benefits, 500+ i 300+, which have so far been received only by Polish taxpayers. In addition, each foreigner covered by the Special Act is entitled to a one-off financial benefit in the amount of 300 PLN per person.

Giving away always evokes pathological attitudes. That's what happened in this situation as well. The events in Przemyśl, where organized Ukrainian gangs were massively extorting Polish benefits, echoed loudly. Coaches with "refugees" crossed the border every day, who obtained a PESEL number, received benefits and returned to their homes peacefully. Same cars. The state authorities remained deaf to the appeals of local government officials. Only the publicity of the case made it possible to end this criminal practice. In the meantime, however, it was extorted, from the money of Polish taxpayers, tens of millions of zlotys.

Tim, which was initially the least controversial, there was free help with accommodation and meals. On a wave of sympathy, we recognized as a society, that we can afford such a humane gesture. However, as the weeks and months passed, the emergency help turned into sponsorship of “all inclusive” stays for hundreds of thousands of migrants. Any attempts to limit the level of aid were met with an aggressive reaction from the more and more demanding newcomers. A textbook example was the argument over the need to leave the Icarus Hotel in Poznań, which I described a few months ago in Myśl Polska (here).

At the beginning of this year, the special act was amended in this respect. According to the new regulations, free assistance in the field of accommodation and meals may be provided by public institutions for no longer than by 120 days from the date of the first entry of a citizen of Ukraine to Poland. After 120 days, these institutions will be able to provide accommodation and meals provided that a given person has a PESEL number and covers part of the costs of assistance. For the period from 120 do 180 days, people from Ukraine will have to cover 50% costs, and not more than 40 PLN per person per day, and after 180 days - 75% costs and no more than 60 PLN per day. Entities providing these services will be responsible for collecting fees for accommodation and meals and for providing information about their amount to administration authorities.

However, the need to co-pay means, that we will continue to bear the costs of staying on our territory for Ukrainian citizens. Only the scale of these expenses will decrease.
The Special Act also granted migrants the immediate right to work in Poland. However, newcomers from Ukraine use this privilege very sparingly. As the government boasts 380 thousands of Ukrainian citizens, who stay with us on the basis of a special act, got a job in it 10 thousands opened their own businesses. These numbers look impressive… until we compare them with other statistics.

According to the data of the Border Guard, more have arrived in Poland since the beginning of the war 10,3 million so-called "refugees" from Ukraine. In the same period, approx 8,4 million people. So in the territory of the Republic of Poland, pursuant to the spec, left approx 1,9 million citizens of Ukraine. If we compare this number with 380 thousands of workers will turn out, that eight out of ten Ukrainians, who came to us after 24 February 2022 year does not work. It's not just women and children. Also healthy, young men, who prefer to spend their time pleasantly at the expense of the Polish taxpayer, than to rot in the muddy trenches of Bakhmut. Why is it hardly surprising?.

From the perspective of a year, it is worth summarizing the costs of the "generosity" of the Polish government. Unfortunately, it is useless to look for official data from the government website. These are partial or do not exist at all. Fortunately, we have independent studies. As recently reported by the daily "Financieele Dagblad", according to data from the Institute of World Economy (IfW) in Kiel, accepting refugees from Ukraine has already cost Warsaw over 8 mld euro. So at the current exchange rate of approx 37,5 billion zlotys. An absurdly high amount. For this underestimated, because the IfW research methodology contains a significant error. It covers only direct costs. In this way, the cost of e.g. covering a population of several million with health care and education. It's real money, however, hidden in the education budget and the National Health Fund. Taking this into account, we can estimate the total cost of the stay of newcomers from Ukraine to date 50 billion zlotys. This amount will continue to grow.

Insane political decisions by Mateusz Morawiecki's team, taken in isolation from economic realities, have created a serious problem. Today, we have one million seven hundred thousand unemployed people to support us, which are becoming more and more troublesome for us. By us, I mean Polish taxpayers, and therefore also those citizens of Ukraine, who came to us earlier and make a living from their work. So how do we all pay taxes.

It's time to end the "good uncle" policy. It is not only destructive for state finances and our household budgets, but also deeply unethical. It is unethical to burden them, who honestly earn their living, at the expense of those who don't. For how amazingly unanimously taught St. Paul and Lenin: "Who doesn't want to work, let them not eat either!”.

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