As of August 31, 2024, 4 million 163.66 thousand non-EU citizens who fled Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, had temporary protection status in the EU, compared to 4 million 123.88 thousand citizens a month earlier, Eurostat reports.
“Compared to the end of July 2024, the largest absolute increase in the number of beneficiaries was observed in Germany (+11,730; +1.1%), the Czech Republic (+7,275; +2.0%) and Romania (+3,050; +1.8%),” the agency said.
It pointed out that the number of beneficiaries decreased in Poland (-1,015; -0.1%), France (-680; -1.1%) and Luxembourg (-10; -0.3%).
According to Eurostat, despite Germany’s revocation of almost 237,000 temporary protection status in July, it still remains the country with the largest number of them in the EU and the world – 1 million 122,33 thousand at the end of August, or 27.0% of the total number of EU beneficiaries.
It is followed by Poland – 975.19 thousand, or 23.4%, and the Czech Republic – 376.89 thousand, or 9.1%.
In August, after a four-month break, the data on Spain was updated, according to which it remains in fourth place – 215.13 thousand compared to 203.3 thousand at the end of March.
At the same time, Eurostat clarified that the data for Spain, Greece and Cyprus take into account some people whose temporary protection status is no longer valid.
According to the agency, compared to the population of each EU member state, the largest number of temporary protection beneficiaries per thousand people in August 2024 was observed in the Czech Republic (34.6), Lithuania (27.6) and Poland (26.6), while the corresponding figure at the EU level is 9.3.
It is also said that as of August 31, 2024, Ukrainian citizens accounted for more than 98% of the beneficiaries of temporary protection. Adult women accounted for almost half (45.1%) of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU, children for almost a third (32.3%), while adult men accounted for just over a fifth (22.6%) of the total. A year earlier, the share of women was 46.5%, children 33.9% and adult men 19.5%.
According to the data presented, in July, Italy remained the fifth largest country by the number of refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status in the EU with 166.80 thousand, which is 0.60 thousand more than in July.
At the end of August 2024, there were also more than 100 thousand such persons in the Netherlands – 116.90 thousand, Slovakia – 125.92 thousand and Ireland – 107.44 thousand.
Between 50 thousand and 100 thousand of them were in Belgium – 83.24 thousand, Lithuania – 79.74 thousand, Austria – 80.27 thousand, Norway – 74.96 thousand, Finland – 66.49 thousand, Switzerland – 66.48 thousand, Portugal – 63.01 thousand, France – 60.67 thousand (data on children are mostly not included – Eurostat) and Bulgaria – 62.51 thousand.
This is followed by Latvia – 46.51 thousand people, Sweden – 43.73 thousand, Hungary – 37.53 thousand, Denmark – 35.79 thousand, Estonia – 33.84 thousand, Greece – 31.48 thousand, Croatia – 25.22 thousand, Cyprus – 21.13 thousand, Iceland – 3.91 thousand, Luxembourg – 3.81 thousand, Malta – 2.13 thousand and Liechtenstein – 0.65 thousand.
Eurostat clarified that all the above data relate to the granting of temporary protection on the basis of EU Council Decision 2022/382 of March 4, 2022, which establishes the existence of a massive influx of displaced persons from Ukraine due to Russia’s military invasion and entails the introduction of temporary protection.
According to updated UNHCR data, the number of Ukrainian refugees in Europe as of September 16 this year was estimated at 6.218 million, and 6.780 million in the world in general, which is 134 thousand and 125 thousand more than a month earlier.
