Fico spreads hatred towards Ukrainians, tries to get rid of Ukrainian diaspora

According to the Slovak Government of Labour, at the beginning of 2025, 44,363 Ukrainian citizens were officially employed in the country, the largest number among foreigners. In May 2022, Ukrainians were also among the top five investors in Slovakia: 2,225 legal entities and firms owned by Ukrainians operate in the country. There are also entrepreneurs - individuals with a Ukrainian passport - who numbered 34,786 in 2024. That is, a total of 81,374 taxpayers in the Slovak budget! According to conservative estimates, if we take into account only the minimum Slovak salary (€750 at the end of 2024) and salary accruals (excluding direct business taxes such as VAT, income tax, etc.), this is €36.6 million per month. 

As for the real working conditions in Slovakia. Only 30% of 44,000 Ukrainian workers are directly employed by their employers. Slovakia has a long-standing system of labour agencies - intermediary companies between employees and employers. Not only Ukrainians, but also other foreigners working legally in Slovakia are employed by these intermediary companies. A direct employer - for example, a car factory - has a contract with a labour agency, to which it pays for the work performed. The agency transfers the money to the foreign worker. 

The agency charges the employee a commission for all related services: assistance with paperwork, overcoming the language barrier, solving everyday issues - as a rule, this is 25-30% of the net salary. Sometimes all these services are only formal. There have been cases where agencies, while withholding funds from employees for taxes or health insurance, simply misappropriated them and did not pay them to the budget. Then the deceived employee was fired, with all the debts to the state pinned on him. And people mostly have no choice.

It is difficult to find a direct employer, as most businesses do not want to have to deal with foreigners. Direct employers are also interested in intermediaries to minimise taxes. One of the ways for a company to reduce taxation is to register people as sole traders rather than employees. In Slovakia, as well as in Ukraine, the tax burden on sole traders is lower than on employees. It is better for a car plant to have a conditional locksmith perform his work as a sole trader. But this is also a lot of hassle, plus government agencies can detect a fictitious scheme. So let the intermediary take the risk - the employment agency that forces foreigners to set up a business. This explains why there are so many Ukrainian sole traders in Slovakia, who are known here by the colourful word ‘zhivnostniks’. That is, a person who ‘feeds’ (‘maintains’) himself independently. 

And we've come to the migration police, which has been a nightmare for Ukrainians since Fico. Any foreigner, whether an employee or an entrepreneur, can earn money in Slovakia if they are legally in the country. The residence permit needs to be renewed every one and a half years on average. If you have a certificate proving that you are legally in Slovakia, you are working. If you don't, then I'm sorry. Even if you have not been fired, the bank will close the account to which you received your salary. 

It's the same with Ukrainian refugees: a person in temporary asylum receives protection and the right to work only if they have a document issued by the police.

Only foreigners who have received a permanent residence permit in the EU are spared the hassle of updating their documents - it is granted after five years of living in Slovakia. When Fico became the head of the Slovak government for the fourth time, at the end of 2023, the migration police changed in a way that was not in favour of foreigners. They are kept in constant fear of losing their legal status.

It is only possible to get an appointment at the Migration Police offices to obtain a first residence permit or update documents if you have a reservation for a specific time and date. These so-called appointments, or reservations, are made through the online system of the MIA portal. And this system, which used to work flawlessly, has been down since the beginning of 2024! There are either no deadlines or two or three slots per thousand people. And even those can only be snatched up at night, literally by being on duty at the computer. At the same time, they are sold on social media for between 250 and 450 euros per person. And there are a lot of fraudsters among the sellers of ‘police terms’ who offer fake number plates. The worst part is that the fraud can only be detected by the police, who accuse the foreigner of trying to circumvent the ‘legally established procedure’. Whether deliberately or through negligence, the Slovak authorities are blocking access to the labour market and effectively pushing people out of the country. 

According to the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Slovakia, Matúš Šutaj Eštok, who, by the way, is probably second only to Fico in terms of the number of brutal insults against Ukrainians, the system of reserving appointments with the police does not work because... constant modernisation is underway! There is no reaction from Slovak authorities to foreigners left to their own devices. Despite the fact that local television regularly reports on this. In one such story, a Ukrainian woman cries to the cameras of journalists: ‘I feel like a dog in this country, just like a dog, you know!’

Foreigners who criticise the Slovak authorities are aggressively shown the door by the authorities. They say, if you don't like it, no one is keeping you here. Since December 2024, Fico and Eštok have been accusing Ukrainians almost daily on TV screens and on their own social media pages of attempting to blow up the Druzhba oil pipeline, hacking attacks on Slovak government portals, and recently of attempting a coup d'état. Each such accusation provokes the creation or addition to the list of people whom the Slovak authorities are preparing to deport.

In January-February 2025, the Slovak police added to the list of ‘educational measures’ against Ukrainians the opening of criminal proceedings against a number of people known in the diaspora for their active civic position and volunteering. People who have lived in Slovakia for many years, know the Slovak language and local customs, are the first to rush to the aid of newcomers: they go with them to the police, fill out questionnaires, help them find housing or find jobs. And it is against the old-timers that criminal proceedings have recently been opened - for attempting to bribe a police officer or even for smuggling people. Allegedly, they helped foreigners who did not meet the requirements for legal stay in Slovakia.

The big question is whether the authorities will bring these charges against Ukrainians to court. But in many cases, the mere fact of criminal proceedings is enough. After all, legal protection in the EU is not cheap. A lawyer in Slovakia costs about €100 per hour. Not every person can afford even a couple of months of pre-trial proceedings.

What does Ukraine have to do with the difficulties of Ukrainians in Slovakia? At home, people are in mortal danger every day. According to surveys conducted by the organisation Civic.SK, Ukrainians working in Slovakia sent an average of 350-400 euros per month to Ukraine in 2024. And this is only money for relatives or friends, not including participation in volunteer collections.

In 2024, the Slovak volunteer group Munícia pre Ukrajinu (Ammunition for Ukraine) raised almost €5 million to buy artillery ammunition. In January 2025, in protest against Fico's pro-Russian policies, the arms fundraising was resumed under the slogan "If not the government, then we send".