The number of refugees from Ukraine registered for temporary protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe reached 4 million 426.75 thousand as of October 25, 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on its website.
For the month since September 30, the growth amounted to 242.9 thousand, while for the previous month – about 214.3 thousand, and in total since the end of May – about 1.5 million.
The largest increase over the past month was shown by Germany (data for October 8) – about 106 thousand, Poland – about 60 thousand, Czech Republic – about 14 thousand.
According to UNHCR data collected from national governments, the largest number of refugees with temporary protection status in Poland is 1 million 469.03 thousand, while 7.365 million people have arrived in the country from Ukraine, according to the Polish border service, since the beginning of the war, and in the opposite direction departed to Ukraine 5.547 million.
Following are Germany and the Czech Republic, where the number of refugees registered for temporary protection from Ukraine amounted to 815.13 thousand and 452.91 thousand, respectively.
The UN, referring to government data, indicates that in total in Germany, where Ukrainians were allowed to stay without registration until the end of August, 1 million 2.67 thousand refugees from Ukraine were recorded, which is only 5 thousand more than a month ago.
In the Czech Republic, the situation, according to UN information, is different: almost all arrivals applied for protection status – 452.91 thousand out of 453.10 thousand.
In the vast majority of other countries, the picture is similar to the Czech Republic: the statistics of registered refugees is completely or almost equal to the statistics of those who applied for protection status, which is probably due to the peculiarity of their registration and the completion of the 90-day period of stay under the visa-free regime. An exception, similar to Germany, is only Estonia – 37.66 thousand with the status of 60.98 thousand refugees registered in the country and partly Romania – 76.16 thousand out of 86.21 thousand.
Italy is still in fourth place in terms of the number of registered refugees from Ukraine – 160.67 thousand (an increase of 3 thousand), and Spain closes the top five – 149.21 thousand (an increase of 4.5 thousand).
Following are Bulgaria with an indicator of 142.81 thousand (an increase of 6.6 thousand), the only one in which the number of registered with the status of temporary protection is much higher than the number of registered refugees from Ukraine – 55.26 thousand, the UK – 138.4 thousand. (growth by 6.7 thousand) and France – 105 thousand (data as of September 26).
From 50 thousand to 100 thousand refugees from Ukraine with the status of temporary protection also in Slovakia – 98.57 thousand (an increase of 3.4 thousand), Austria – 84.76 thousand, the Netherlands – 79.25 thousand ( data as of September 30), Lithuania – 68.93 thousand, including Switzerland – 66.81 thousand (an increase of 5 thousand), Ireland – 60.51 thousand (an increase of 5.7 thousand), Belgium – 57.83 thousand and Portugal – 52.88 thousand (data as of October 3), as well as Romania mentioned above.
Following with indicators from 25 thousand to 50 thousand are Sweden – 47.38 thousand, Latvia – 40.67 thousand, Finland – 42.29 thousand. Denmark is also in this category – 34.41 thousand, Hungary – 31.29 thousand, Norway – 30.57 thousand, as well as Estonia, which was discussed above.
From 10 to 25 thousand refugees from Ukraine with the status of temporary protection in Greece – 20.0 thousand, Croatia – 18.93 thousand and Cyprus – 17.63 thousand.
In addition, the UN statistics on those who received the status of temporary protection include refugees of Ukraine in Slovenia – 7.90 thousand, Luxembourg – 6.76 thousand, Montenegro – 6.65 thousand, Iceland – 1.77 thousand, in Malta – 1.42 thousand, in Serbia and Kosovo – 1.04 thousand and Liechtenstein – 0.4 thousand.
The UN also indicated the countries in which refugees from Ukraine were recorded, but there is no data on their status: Turkey (data as of May 19) – 145 thousand, Moldova – 95.73 thousand, Georgia – 26.79 thousand, Northern Macedonia – 6.16 thousand, Azerbaijan – 3.93 thousand, Albania – 2.62 thousand, Armenia – 0.49 thousand and Bosnia and Herzegovina – 0.13 thousand.
Separately, the UN indicates Russia and Belarus, the Ukrainian border with which 2 million 852.4 thousand and 16.7 thousand people, respectively, crossed, however, after October 3, data for Russia ceased to be updated, while for Belarus they are even older. According to the UN, all those who crossed the border were recorded in the Russian Federation, while in Belarus – 15.93 thousand. There is no data on obtaining the status by them, as well as data on crossing the border of Ukraine in the opposite direction.
According to UNHCR data, as of October 25, a total of 14.592 million people have left Ukraine since the beginning of the war (excluding entry flow), of which 7.114 million went to Poland, 2.852 million to Russia (data as of October 3), and Hungary to 1.629 million people, Romania – 1.426 million people, Slovakia – 888.4 thousand people, Moldova – 670.2 thousand people, Belarus – 16.7 thousand people.
At the same time, according to the UN, from February 28 to October 25, 7.144 million people entered Ukraine (excluding data from Hungary, the Russian Federation and Belarus).
“Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, almost a third of Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes. This is one of the largest displacement crises in the world today. In Ukraine, about 6.2 million people remain displaced by war,” says UNHCR, which downgraded its estimate of internally displaced people in October persons per 0.8 million people.
UNHCR indicates that by mid-2021 there were only 53.47 thousand Ukrainian refugees in the world who applied for the appropriate status, of which 36.49 thousand were in Europe.
As of mid-2020, the UNHCR estimated the Ukrainian diaspora in the world at 6.1 million, including 5 million in Europe.