Number of Ukrainian refugees under temporary protection in EU exceeds 4.2M

The temporary protection status in EU countries has been granted to 4.24 million people who fled Ukraine as a consequence of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

This is evidenced by data provided by Eurostat, Ukrinform reports.

It is noted that the main EU countries hosting beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine were Germany (1,215,365 people; 28.7% of the total), Poland (960,620; 22.7%) and Czechia (364,450; 8.6%). 

“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% (-1,700 people). The largest absolute increases were observed in Germany (+20,465; +1.7%), Czechia (+6,490; +1.8%), and the Netherlands (+4,005; +3.0%),” the report says.

According to Eurostat, 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 thousand people.

As of October 31, 2023, Ukrainian citizens represented over 98% of the beneficiaries of temporary protection. Adult women made up almost half (46.4%) of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU. Children accounted for almost one-third (33.4%), while adult men comprised slightly more than a fifth (20.2%) of the total.

As reported by Ukrinform, in October, the EU Temporary Protection Directive, which gives Ukrainian refugees the right to legally stay in the EU member states, was officially extended until March next year.