4 million people have benefited from EU temporary protection since February 2022

2023-06-13 10:00:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

European countries have granted temporary protection to nearly four million people who fled Ukraine due to the Russian invasion that took place in 2022.

According to Eurostat, the European Statistical Office, Germany has granted the status to 28 percent of the total, representing over a million beneficiaries, followed by Poland, which granted protection status to 995,035 – 25 percent of the total, and the Czech Republic ( 331,850; eight percent), reports SchengenVisaInfo.com.

The number of beneficiaries across the EU increased by 1.3 per cent, representing 51,010 more people, while the countries where the growth was most noticeable were Germany, Sweden and the Czech Republic, recording increases of two per cent, individually.

"The large number of people accepted by Sweden was mainly because the process of renewing temporary protection statuses, which ended in March 2023, was delayed. This made the number of registered beneficiaries of temporary protection at the end of March appear lower than it actually was," explains Eurostat.

Some countries, on the other hand, have experienced a decrease in the number of beneficiaries of temporary protection status, with Poland recording the highest decrease – 4,700 fewer beneficiaries, followed by Portugal (-2,520), Estonia (-1 885) and France. (-985).

In terms of the ratio of beneficiaries of temporary protection per thousand people in April, the Czech Republic recorded the highest figures – 31.6, followed by Poland and Estonia (both 26.4) and Lithuania, while the corresponding figure in the EU was 8.9.

By April 2023, Ukrainian citizens represented 98 percent of beneficiaries of temporary protection. Women, mostly aged between 35 and 64, represented 47 percent of all beneficiaries of temporary protection in the EU, while children accounted for just over a third (35 percent). On the other hand, men represented less than a fifth of the total, accounting for 18 percent.

Since August, the number of beneficiaries has increased by 6.1 percent, starting at 3.6 million and increasing to 3.8 million next year, while in March it reached 3.83 million in total.

Initially, Poland was the main host country for applicants for temporary protection status, with 1.3 million of them registering in August alone.

However, these figures changed a year after the Russian military appeared in Ukraine, with Germany becoming the main issuing country in February 2023.

In other words, over a million people have benefited from temporary protection status in Germany, while these figures have dropped to 989,080 for Poland./ CNA.al