Association of Frontline Cities called on government to prevent mass bringing in labor migrants into Ukraine
The Association of Frontline Cities and Communities of Ukraine has appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada to prevent the mass bringing in labor migrants.
The Association announced this on Facebook, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
The appeal was supported by representatives of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Zaporizhzhia Regions.
The head of the organization, the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, said that the mass bringing in cheap labor is the "most primitive" way to solve the personnel shortage.
"World experience proves that such an approach preserves technological backwardness. If we need foreigners in the labor market, then this should be a strictly quota-based process: retaining foreign students who have already adapted in Ukraine, and selectively attracting only highly qualified specialists for complex engineering or technological reconstruction projects," he stressed.
The Association emphasized that Ukraine has its own labor reserve, which must be attracted instead of closing personnel issues with foreigners.
"Hundreds of thousands of veterans will need full reintegration into civilian life. Millions of Ukrainians were forced to leave the country. Ukraine has no right to send a signal to its citizens that they are already looking for a replacement," Terekhov noted.
The Association called on the Cabinet of Ministers to strengthen control over the issuance of work permits for foreigners and focus state policy on supporting Ukrainian workers, IDPs, and veterans. The Verkhovna Rada was proposed to hold parliamentary hearings on the demographic and social risks of labor migration, as well as to legislate the principle of priority employment of Ukrainian citizens.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Danylo Hetmantsev, MP from the Servant of the People, previously spoke out against filling the Ukrainian labor market with migrants.