Thuringia: Employment agency: mediated hundreds of refugees from Ukraine

Job centers and employment agencies have the task of supporting refugees. It’s about prospects – not just at work.

Halle/Erfurt (dpa/th) – According to the employment agency, the placement of Ukrainian refugees in employment and qualifications is making good progress in Thuringia. Since June, around 460 people have been placed directly in employment and training, as the regional directorate of the federal agency announced. According to the information, almost 1,900 Ukraine refugees have started subsidized employment in the Free State since June. This also included professional training measures or language courses.

“Language mediators, native speakers, have been hired in the job placement teams in some job centers,” said Markus Behrens, head of the Saxony-Anhalt-Thuringia regional office. Because it is about mutual understanding. There is also an interpreter hotline from the Federal Agency. In September, around 6,000 people from Ukraine were registered at the job centers in Thuringia, and in June there were a good 3,200. A total of 60,000 people were registered as unemployed in the Free State in September.

A spokeswoman for the regional directorate pointed out that refugees from Ukraine had only been in Thuringia for a short time. In view of the Russian war of aggression that began in February, people who had left their homeland were traumatized and needed human companionship. In addition, quite a few do not speak German, and not every recruiter speaks Ukrainian. It was mostly women with small children who fled to Thuringia. They also need a daycare place in order to be able to take up employment or further training.

The aim is to place people in accordance with their professional qualifications. “This means that anyone who was a teacher in Ukraine should be able to work as a teacher here and not be dependent on an unskilled job,” she said. Refugees from the Ukraine have been looked after by job centers in Germany since June 1st. You receive basic security benefits. Previously, the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act applied to them.