Housing minister Mona Keijzer plans to close the accommodation facilities set up for Ukrainian refugees “as soon as possible” once the EU’s special protection rules expire in 2027.

Under the cabinet’s plans, the 135,000 Ukrainians in the Netherlands would be given three-year residency permits from March 2027, but they would also be responsible for their own housing and healthcare.

Critics say the plans, set out in a letter to parliament last week, are poorly worked out and do not take account of the current housing shortage.

“Apparently Keijzer has a magic word that allows all these people to suddenly find a house on the open market,” Bart Dikkeschei of Heroyam, an agency that helps Ukrainians settle in the Netherlands, told the Telegraaf. “If she doesn’t, this letter is a load of hot air.”

Around three-quarters of Ukrainians in the Netherlands live in dedicated accommodation facilities set up by the government in the last three years. Keijzer said the “government accommodation should be ended as soon as possible” and the funding to municipalities stopped.

But local authorities say it will cause problems if they lose the funding stream while still being responsible for housing Ukrainians and paying benefits.

Welfare suppor

Jamal Statenko, who runs a Facebook page keeping Ukrainians informed about developments in the Netherlands, said: “Will Ukrainians be able to get a mortgage with their [temporary] status? Will they be able to get social rental housing? There are no answers to a lot of these questions.”

The end of the special protection measures means the government will no longer subsidise Ukrainians’ housing and health insurance, but they will be eligible for the same benefits as regular citizens.

Although two-thirds of Ukrainians are working and they contributed €3.5 billion to the economy last year, a “significant portion” will be eligible to claim welfare support, Keijzer acknowledged.

Young Ukrainians will have the same opportunities to study and access college funding as EU citizens, ending a situation where they have had to pay at least three times as much because Ukraine is outside the European Economic Region.