The German flag. The German government announced it will ease immigration restrictions on Ukrainian Jews. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The German government announced Thursday that it will ease immigration restrictions on Jews from Ukraine over Jews from other former Soviet republics. To that end, Germany will be waiving some application requirements for those immigrants.

Jews from the former Soviet Union have been immigrating to Germany since the fall of communism in 1989, predominantly due to anti-Semitism in those countries, leading to an influx of about 200,000 Jews.

German immigration laws were then tightened in 2005. But now, Germany has decided to loosen the restrictions for Ukrainian Jews due to the turmoil in their country, reported The Associated Press.