Ukraine intends to step up recruitment of workers from African countries to help partly ease its labor shortage—Budanov said. As part of this initiative, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Foreign Ministry have been instructed to review the list of states classified as posing a “migration risk,” which determines the rules for foreigners’ entry and legal status in the country.
“Roughly two or three weeks ago, I held a major meeting on our relations with Africa. The protocol decision was to instruct the Foreign Ministry and the Security Service of Ukraine to urgently prepare changes to the list of migration-risk countries,” the head of the Presidential Office said at a CEO Club meeting.
According to him, the current restrictions are largely driven by concerns over illegal migration: some foreigners, after obtaining the necessary documents, either stop working for their employers or use Ukraine as a transit point for moving on to other countries.
He did not specify which states might be included in the updated list, nor whether countries such as Somalia, Congo, or the Central African Republic are being considered in this context.