The number of refugees from Ukraine registered for temporary protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe reached 5 million 8.28 thousand as of March 28, 2023, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on its website.
In the nearly two months since Jan. 31, the increase was 185,15,000, up from 72,300 in the previous slightly longer period, and a total of about 2 million since the end of May 2022.
The number of refugees with Temporary Protection status in Europe, towards the end of January, was very close to the mark of 5 million, reaching 4.95 million. But then the data of Germany was updated for two months, which recorded a decrease of Ukrainians in the country with such status immediately by more than 140 thousand – down to 881,4 thousand.
The next update of this data for Germany at the end of March showed growth again – up to 922.66 thousand.
According to UNHCR data, collected from the national governments, most refugees with temporary protection statuses are still in Poland – 1 million 577,29 thousand for almost two months their number increased by 14 thousand. Total number of refugees from Ukraine, according to the Polish border service since the war began, was 10.819 million people, and in the opposite direction to Ukraine 8.966 million left.
The third place in the receipt of Ukrainians is occupied by the Czech Republic, where the number of people registered for temporary protection increased from the end of January by 16.9 thousand – to 502.0 thousand.
The fourth place is occupied by the United Kingdom – 191,9 thousand (with increase of 33,1 thousand).
Italy now occupies the fifth place – 173.21 thousand (an increase of 2.9 thousand), and Spain is on the third place with a small gap – 171.87 thousand (an increase of 10.9 thousand).
Bulgaria goes next with an indicator of 155.46 thousand (3.8 thousand increase), and Romania – 123.76 thousand (an increase of 12.9 thousand).
There are more than 100 thousand Ukrainians registered for temporary protection in two countries – France and Slovakia: 118.99 thousand (data as of October 21) and 112.72 thousand (increase by 5.7 thousand).
Austria also has from 50 thousand to 100 thousand refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status – 94.98 thousand (2.5 thousand more), the Netherlands – 89.73 thousand (4.5 thousand more), Switzerland – 83.43 thousand (4.5 thousand more), Lithuania – 76.16 thousand (2.6 thousand more).
These figures also include Ireland – 78.03 thousand (growth by 5.4 thousand), Belgium – 69.25 thousand (growth by 4.9 thousand), Portugal – 58.24 thousand (growth by 1.1 thousand), Sweden – 53.51 thousand (growth by 2.3 thousand) and Finland – 52.47 thousand (growth by 3.2 thousand).
Latvia goes next with indicators from 25 thousand to 50 thousand – 46.86 thousand (an increase of 1.6 thousand), Estonia – 44.40 thousand (an increase of 1.6 thousand), Norway – 44.01 thousand (an increase of 5.4 thousand), Denmark – 39.22 thousand (an increase of 1.5 thousand) and Hungary – 34.25 thousand (an increase of 0.7 thousand).
From 10 to 25 thousand refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status in Cyprus – 21.84 thousand (an increase of 1.2 thousand), in Croatia – 21.35 thousand (an increase of 0.9 thousand), and in Greece – 20.96 thousand (data of December 6).
In addition, the UN statistics on refugees of Ukraine received temporary protection status in Slovenia – 8.92 thousand, Montenegro – 8.30 thousand, Luxemburg – 6.76 thousand (data of October 25), Iceland – 2.35 thousand (data of December 31), Malta – 1.74 thousand, Serbia and Kosovo – 1.28 thousand, Liechtenstein – 0.54 thousand and Albania – 0.03 thousand.
The UN also indicates countries with registered refugees from Ukraine, but no data on their status: Moldova – 107.01 thousand, Turkey – 95.87 thousand, Georgia – 25.70 thousand, North Macedonia – 6.57 thousand, Azerbaijan – 5.03 thousand, Armenia – 0.55 thousand and Bosnia and Herzegovina – 0.17 thousand.
The UN separately indicates Russia and Belarus, where the Ukrainian border was crossed by 2 million 852.4 thousand and 16.71 thousand people, respectively, but since October 3, the data for Russia are no longer updated, while that for Belarus is even older. According to the UN, the Russian Federation recorded all who crossed the border, while in Belarus – 21.83 thousand. There are no data on their status, as well as data on crossing the border of Ukraine in the opposite direction.
According to the UNHCR data as of March 28, a total of 19.741 million people left Ukraine since the beginning of the war (not counting the flow of people into the country), including 10.452 million people to Poland, 2.852 million people to Russia (data of October 3), 2.415 million people to Hungary, 2.154 million people to Romania, 1.267 million people to Slovakia, 795.6 million people to Moldova and 16.7 thousand people to Belarus.
At the same time, according to the UN, 11.200 million people arrived in Ukraine from February 28, 2022 to March 28, 2023 (excluding the data of Hungary, Russia and Belarus).
The organization recalls that in mid-2021, there were only 53.47 thousand Ukrainian refugees in the world, who sought the appropriate status, including 36.49 thousand in Europe.
The Ukrainian diaspora in the world by mid-2020, UNHCR estimated at 6.1 million, including in Europe – 5 million.
