Employees of the Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption at Ben Gurion Airport welcomed 573 Olim (new immigrants) from Ukraine on Monday, as the country prepares for thousands more.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 10,485 new immigrants have immigrated to Israel. At least 250 immigrants from Ukraine are expected to land in Israel on Tuesday on two flights from Poland and Moldova, two countries neighboring Ukraine.
Sasha Zlobjn, who arrived in Israel with his grandparents on Monday from Kharkiv, Ukraine, is the 10,000th person to immigrate to Israel, the Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption said.
Minister of Aliyah and Absorption Pnina Temano Sheta will meet on Tuesday with hundreds of employers who have expressed interest in employing new immigrants and will present her with their plans for absorbing immigrants from Ukraine into the Israeli employment market.
The Ministry Aliyah and Absorption has launched the “Immigrants Home” online portal, a hub for all the immigrants’ rights, along with a database of offers for employment, volunteers seeking to accompany immigrants for medical arrangements, and families interested in inviting immigrants to stay on the Passover Seder night.
More than two-thirds of the 10,000 people who have made Aliyah to Israel in the past month have come from Ukraine, according to the ministry. The rest have come from Russia and Belarus.
Minister of Interior Ayelet Shaked told the Knesset’s Internal Affairs and Environment Committee last Wednesday that about 4,000 refugees who have no relatives in Israel have entered the country, out of a quota of 5,000. In addition, 5,000 people who have relatives in Israel have entered.
Israel has received a larger number of refugees than Britain, she noted, which also lets in people based on family relationships.
