Eurostat: 4.24M who fled war Russia’s war on Ukraine have temporary protection in EU
As of October 31 2023, about 4.24 million non-EU citizens who fled Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian invasion on February 24 2022, had temporary protection status in EU countries, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on December 8.
The main EU countries hosting beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine were Germany (1 215 365 people; 28.7 per cent of the total), Poland (960 620; 22.7 per cent) and Czechia (364 450; 8.6 per cent).
Compared with the end of September 2023, the number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine in the EU increased in all EU countries, except for Denmark, where it decreased by 4.5 per cent (-1700 people).
The largest absolute increases were observed in Germany (+20 465; +1.7 per cent), Czechia (+6490; +1.8 per cent), and the Netherlands (+4005; +3.0 per cent).
The data refer to the attribution of temporary protection status based on the Council Implementing Decision 2022/382 of 4 March 2022, establishing the existence of a mass influx of displaced persons from Ukraine due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and having the effect of introducing temporary protection.
On September 28 2023, the European Council agreed to extend the temporary protection for people fleeing from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine from March 4 2024 to March 4 2025.
Compared with the population of each EU country, the highest numbers of total temporary protection beneficiaries per thousand people at the end of October 2023 were observed in Czechia (33.7), Estonia (26.3), Poland and Bulgaria (both 26.1) and Lithuania (25.8), whereas the corresponding figure at the EU level was 9.5 per 1000 people.
On October 31 2023, Ukrainian citizens represented over 98 per cent of the beneficiaries of temporary protection.
Adult women made up almost half (46.4 per cent) of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU. Children accounted for almost one-third (33.4 per cent), while adult men comprised slightly more than a fifth (20.2 per cent) of the total, Eurostat said.
(Archive photo, from March 2022: UNHCR/Chris Melzer)
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