14 Jun 2022 18:55

Over 3.2 mln refugees from Ukraine get temporary protection status in Europe, most of them in Poland, Germany, Czech Republic - UN

MOSCOW. June 14 (Interfax) - The number of refugees from Ukraine registered for being provided with temporary protection or similar national protection status in European countries reached 3.207 million as of June 9, 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UN Refugee Agency) said in a statement on its website.

Compared to the June 1 data, this number grew by nearly 0.3 million, and 0.24 million of these people received this status in Germany alone in this period, it said.

Ukrainian media said that, according to the UN Refugee Agency data collected from national governments, Poland has granted this status to 1,352,364 individuals. According to the Polish border authority, 3.865 million people entered Poland from Ukraine and 1.738 million left the country between February 24 and June 9.

Germany has recorded 565,821 people and the Czech Republic 366,490 people provided with temporary protection status.

Citing information from the German government, the UN said a total of some 780,000 refugees from Ukraine were registered in Germany, where they can stay unregistered until the end of August. Hence, based on this data, quite a significant number of these refugees have not yet applied for temporary protection status.

As for the Czech Republic, the situation is different there, as 366,490 of the 366,632 refugees have applied for and received this status.

In an overwhelming majority of other countries, the situation is similar to that in the Czech Republic, with the overall number of refugees recorded in the country nearly or fully coinciding with the number of those who applied for protection status, which apparently reflects the specifics of their registration in those countries. The few exceptions are Romania (with 37,353 of the 89,784 refugees granted said status), Estonia (25,693 of the 39,802), and Italy (97,314 of the 125,907).

Apart from Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Italy, the countries where more than 50,000 Ukrainian refugees have been granted temporary protection status include also Spain (118,122), Slovakia (77,141 of the 217,902 those who crossed the country's borders), Austria (69,760), the Netherlands (62,970), Lithuania (53,891), and Switzerland (53,120).

Belgium has recorded 45,300 Ukrainian refugees for temporary protection, France 43,300 (as of April 27, 2022), Portugal 41,451, Sweden 37,995, the United Kingdom 37,400 (as of May 3, 2022), Ireland 33,151, and Denmark 27,208.

From 10,000 to 25,000 refugees from Ukraine have been granted temporary protection status in Finland (24,455), Latvia (23,375), Hungary (24,091), Norway (16,708), Greece (14,887), Croatia (13,758), and Cyprus (12,788).

Slovenia has granted temporary protection to 7,050 refugees from Ukraine, Luxembourg to 5,300, Montenegro to 2,530, Iceland to 997, Malta to 922, Serbia and Kosovo to 695, and Liechtenstein to 212.

The table also includes relevant data from Bulgaria, possibly entered inaccurately, as it cites the overall number of refugees who entered the country as 78,291 and the number of those granted temporary protection status as 113,030.

The UN has also mentioned countries where refugees from Ukraine have been recorded but which have not reported on granting them said status. In particular, 86,254 refugees are present in Moldova, 145,000 in Turkey, 20,030 in Georgia, 5,062 in Azerbaijan, 1,479 in Albania, 1,097 in North Macedonia, 362 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 300 in Armenia.

As concerns Russia and Belarus, whose borders with Ukraine have been crossed by 1,136,243 and 16,650 people respectively, the UN report says Russia has registered all those who crossed the border, while Belarus fewer than half of them. No information on any status granted to those people or the number of those who crossed back into Ukraine is available.

A total of 7,363,623 people left Ukraine after February 24 and 2,387,834 crossed into Ukraine (without relevant data from Hungary, Russia, and Belarus available). Based on this information, the UN estimated the overall number of refugees from Ukraine at about 4.8 million people, including over 1.1 million people who crossed into Russia.

The UN Refugee Agency now estimates the number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine at about 7.1 million, somewhat down from its previous estimate of 8 million. Apart from that, about 15.1 million people are in need of humanitarian aid and support, according to the agency.

In mid-2021, there were only about 53,500 Ukrainian refugees around the world applying for relevant status, including 36,500 in Europe.

In mid-2020, the UN Refugee Agency estimated the size of the Ukrainian diaspora in the world at 6.1 million, including 5 million in Europe.