Number of refugees from Ukraine granted EU temporary protection status up nearly 32,000 in Sept - Eurostat

MOSCOW. Nov 10 (Interfax) - As many as 4,186,165 citizens of countries other than European Union member states who have left Ukraine after February 24, 2022 were granted temporary protection status in the EU as of September 30, Ukrainian media reported citing the EU statistical office Eurostat on Friday.

"Compared with the end of August 2023, the number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine in the EU increased by 31,920 (+0.8%). The largest absolute increases were observed in Germany (+19,205, +1.6%), the Netherlands (+3,685, +2.8%) and Ireland (+2,875, 3.2%)," Eurostat said.

The general increase in August was 1%, or 41,300 people, compared to 1.1% in July and June each (45,900-45,800), 1.4% in May (57,300) and 1.3% in April (51,000). Germany has seen the largest increase over the past six months (nearly 130,000 in total), followed by the Czech Republic (47,300).

However, the Czech Republic for the first time saw a decline in the number of temporary protection beneficiaries in September by 7,125 people (-2%), while in Poland, where such decline had been the highest among all countries over the previous few months, this figure dropped by only 1,895 people, or by 0.2% in September, compared to 1.1% in August.

The other three countries where the number of Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection status declined in September were France (-2,155, -3.2%), Slovenia (-405, -4.6%) and Luxembourg (-10, -0.2%).

According to the Eurostat data, the main EU countries that absorbed temporary protection status recipients from Ukraine as of the end of September were Germany (1,194,900 people, 28.3% of the overall number), Poland (958,655, 23.1%), and the Czech Republic (357,960, 8.8%). The three countries accounted for 60.2% of all EU temporary protection status recipients from Ukraine.

The ratio of temporary protection beneficiaries from Ukraine relative to the EU population was 9.3 per 1,000 people at the end of September 2023, with the highest ratios observed in the Czech Republic (33.1), Estonia (26.2), Poland (26.1), Bulgaria (25.8), and Lithuania (25.5).

As of August 31, Ukrainian citizens accounted for over 98% of temporary protection beneficiaries, with women making up 46.5% of these, children 33.7%, and adult men 19.9% (up from 19.2% two months ago).

In September, Spain was the country with the fourth largest number of temporary protection beneficiaries from Ukraine (187,205) and Bulgaria the fifth (166,535).

The countries where over 100,000 such persons stayed as of the end of September included also Italy (161,220), Romania (140,585), the Netherlands (135,625), and Slovakia (109,530).

The countries where from 50,000 to 100,000 such persons stayed at this time included Ireland (94,085), Austria (79,790), Lithuania (72,810), Belgium (71,350), France (64,775, minors not included), Switzerland (65,725), Finland (61,165), Portugal (57,230), and Norway (56,455).

The countries with under 50,000 Ukrainians granted EU temporary protection status included Latvia (43,035), Sweden (41,915), Denmark (37,440), Estonia (35,820), Hungary (33,060), Greece (26,095), Croatia (22,485), Cyprus (18,360), Luxembourg (4,180), Iceland (3,470), Malta (1,885), and Liechtenstein (530).

Eurostat pointed out specifically that its data referred to the attribution of temporary protection status based on the Council of the EU decision dated March 4, 2022, establishing the existence of a mass influx of displaced persons from Ukraine and having the effect of introducing temporary protection.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) data as of November 7, the number of Ukrainian refugees worldwide was estimated at 6.242 million, including 5.85 million in European countries outside of Ukraine, having grown over the previous month by about 37,000 and 15,000, respectively.

The UNHCR estimated the number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine itself as of the end of May 2023 at 5.088 million.

The Ukrainian government's macroeconomic forecast for 2024, which envisions GDP growth by 4.6%, assumes that 1.5 million Ukrainians will return home.