LZ: Swiss official Graf accused of racism for his remarks about refugees from Ukraine

MOSCOW, January 11 – RIA Novosti. Guido Graf, head of the Social Services and Health Department of Switzerland’s Lucerne Canton, was accused of “racism” after his statements about Ukrainian refugees. Writer Local edition of the Luzerner Zeitung.

In an interview with Blick Graf newspaper declarationThat Ukrainians are “in some cases more demanding than other asylum seekers”. He noted that with every wave of refugees, those who can afford it come first, not the most needy, which “raises questions” among locals. “People are not very happy when refugees drive off-road vehicles and also receive social assistance. Other refugee groups don’t understand why they can’t own a car, while Ukrainians can,” said the head of the department.

According to the Luzerner Zeitung, Graf faced accusations of “racism” after his statement. For example, Urban Fry, Cantonal MP from the Green Party, accused him of “deliberately spreading negative generalizations” about Ukrainians. He asked the local government about the situation of Ukrainian refugees in Lucerne and how many of them had cars and received social assistance.

In addition, Fry criticized Graf for a statement in October last year in which Ukrainian women reported their desire to give themselves Botox injections, accusing the latter of using “cliches without reference to verifiable facts”. According to the deputy, the statements of the head of the Lucerne department threaten the local people’s sense of solidarity with the Ukrainians.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as of August 9, more than 10.5 million people crossed the borders of Ukraine to enter neighboring countries since February 24, and more than 4.4 million people returned to the country since February 28. As can be seen from the report, Russia was the country that received the most refugees in the world with 1,968,127 people.