The state is fully prepared if there is any need to accept Ukrainian refugees, the Minister of the Interior claims Oliver Spasovski.

Spasovski pointed out that the state has activated the Directive on temporary protection, despite the claims of the Association of Young Lawyers that Macedonia, together with Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, have not activated that directive.

- No, we have activated such a mechanism as a state. We are fully prepared. We have the entry of about 21 thousand Ukrainian citizens on the territory of the state, first of all, who are in family or friendly relations with our citizens, and some of them work in IT companies that come here. There is a small number of people who have applied and are granted residence for humanitarian reasons. However, as a country we are fully prepared if there is any need to accept Ukrainian refugees, said Spasovski.

Zoran Drangovski from the Macedonian Association of Young Lawyers pointed out that they have a number of several thousand Ukrainians, who are facing serious difficulties in the country.

- The EU countries activated the so-called Temporary Protection Directive, which is also in our Law on International Protection, but the Republic of Macedonia did not activate that protection and practically the refugees from Ukraine are left alone to manage their status. . A part of them have already applied for temporary protection, another type of protection that is given according to the Law on foreigners, is not protection of the type intended for refugees, because with this protection they cannot work, use health insurance, unless you are they pay for themselves privately, they cannot receive free education, etc., Drangovski said.

The state treats most of them as tourists.

- They entered here according to that three-month stay, we have no information whether all of them have regulated their stay or not, but the state does not have a special system that will enable the protection of refugees from Ukraine. Although there is a regular procedure for obtaining the right to asylum, a small number have decided to ask for asylum, according to the information we are dealing with, and we don't know for what reasons, they may still be waiting for such a collective protection that Macedonia should provide to these refugees, Drangovski added.

The Secretary General of the Red Cross Sait Saiti informs that about 250 to 300 people from Ukraine are present in the Republic of North Macedonia.

- The Red Cross takes care of them completely in terms of help and support in terms of humanitarian needs and health care. We are ready, we have secured funds and people, to meet them to the end. We are working on expanding our services to them, we are preparing a room for Ukrainian children to approach in a different way, to meet their needs at that age, Saiti said.

Regarding the number of over five million refugees, who are in the territory of Turkey, the Minister of Interior Spasovki pointed out that they are a potential problem for our country, but also for the region and the European Union.

- That is why it is extremely important how the EU-Turkey agreement will work. I hope that those relations will be successfully managed as before, in order not to cause bigger challenges for all of us in the field of dealing with migration. I want to mention that all these measures that we are taking are measures to deal with the consequences of migration. These are not measures to solve the problem. The problem with migration should be solved from the source, emphasized Spasovski.

According to the minister, about 2015 people passed through the territory of our country from 2016 to January 1.100.000.