Number of Ukrainian refugees under temporary protection ups 16,400 in Germany, 5,600 in Poland in Feb

MOSCOW. April 9 (Interfax) - As many as 4,234,600 non-EU citizens who left Ukraine after the start of the crisis had temporary protection status in the European Union as of February 29, 2024, Ukrainian media reported citing the European Statistical Office (Eurostat).

"Compared with the end of January 2024, the largest absolute increases in the number of beneficiaries were observed in Germany (up 16,430, or 1.3%), Poland (up 5,640, or 0.6%), and Czechia (up 3,885, or 1.0%)," Eurostat said.

"The number of beneficiaries decreased in five EU countries, namely Austria (down 1,420 people, or 1.7%), France (down 685, or 1.1%), Estonia (down 550, or 1.5%), the Netherlands (down 120, or 0.1%), and Malta (down 20, or 1.0%)," it said.

As of late March, Eurostat reported a considerably larger amount of refugees under temporary protection, 4,303,120. However, the decrease in the total amount in April is due to data reduction from Bulgaria, from 172,275 in late January to 45,715 in February. The number of refuges under temporary protection in Italy grew from 143,250 to 164,865.

In the past 11 months, the largest increase, over 220,000 people in total, was recorded in Germany, followed by the Czech Republic with 74,500 people.

Eurostat said that as of late February, the main EU countries hosting beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine were Germany (1,286,580 people making up 30.4% of the total), Poland (957,200, 22.6%) and the Czech Republic (385,080, 9.1%). The total share of these countries is 62.1%.

Eurostat clarified that in comparison with the population of each EU member state, the highest number of total beneficiaries of temporary protection per 1,000 people in February 2024 was observed in the Czech Republic (35.6), Lithuania (26.5), and Poland (26), whereas the corresponding parameter at the EU level stands at 9.4.

As of February 29, Ukrainian citizens represented over 98% of beneficiaries of temporary protection, Eurostat said. Adult women made up nearly half (46%) of beneficiaries of temporary protection in the EU, children accounted for nearly a third (32.9%), whereas adult men accounted for a little over a fifth (21.2%) of the total amount. The share of women was 46.6%, children 34.6% and adult men 18.8% nine months earlier.

In February, Spain received the fourth highest number of Ukrainian refugees with temporary protection status (200,430 people), and Italy the fifth highest one (164,865), Eurostat said.

The countries where over 100,000 such persons stayed as of the end of February 2024 also included Romania (149,755), the Netherlands (116,735), Slovakia (117,455), and Ireland (103,450).

The following countries accepted from 50,000 to 100,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection: Austria (82,140), Lithuania (75,695), Belgium (76,730), France (64,040), data for minors generally not included), Finland (65,630), Switzerland (65,150), and Portugal (59,750).

They are followed by Sweden (46,275), Bulgaria (45,715), Latvia (44,405), Denmark (37,130), Estonia (35,205), Hungary (34,845), Greece (27,295), Croatia (23,320), Cyprus (19,800), Luxembourg (4,225), Malta (1,965), and Liechtenstein (595). Iceland, which hosted 3,975 refugees with temporary protection in January, is absent from the statistics for February.

Eurostat pointed out that all presented data refer to the attribution of temporary protection status based on the decision of the Council of the European Union of March 4, 2022.

According to updated data of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as of March 14, the number of Ukrainian refugees was estimated at 5.938 million across Europe and 6.486 million globally, which is 21,000 lower and 6,000 higher, respectively, than in the previous month.

According to the UN's data for late 2023, there were 3.689 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine itself.

Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Sergei Sobolev said in early March 2023 that the return of every 100,000 Ukrainians home ensures the growth of GDP by 0.5%. The Ukrainian Economy Ministry expects the return of 1.5 million Ukrainians home as part of its macroeconomic forecast for 2024, whereas the National Bank, on the contrary, expects 100,000 Ukrainians to leave the country compared to 200,000 in 2023.