Germany will not deprive men from Ukraine of their refugee status

Germany does not plan to deprive Ukrainian men of mobilization age of refugee status. Ukraineʼs temporary refusal to provide consular services to them will not affect this.

This was stated by the official representative of the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs Maximilian Kall in response to a question from a DW correspondent.

"I am sure that this will not affect the status of refugees from Ukraine who need protection, regardless of whether they are women, who are the overwhelming majority of such refugees, or men," said Kall.

At the same time, he called the decision to temporarily stop consular services for men of military age abroad "a sovereign decision of Ukraine."

• Since April 23, consular services have been suspended for Ukrainians of military age abroad. The restrictions will apply until the law on mobilization comes into force (May 18), after which consular services can be obtained by updating the data in the territorial recruit centers (TRCs).
• One of the drafters of the draft law, MP Fedir Venislavskyi explains that the rule with the simultaneous update of data when providing consular services aims to assess the real mobilization resource within the country. "This way, the state will know how many conscript men are actually abroad, and will not search for them in Ukraine, wasting the resources of the TRC. Such men will not be deported to Ukraine — such mechanisms do not exist now," he emphasizes.