More than 25,000 foreigners in Greece under temporary protection

An estimated 26,850 foreigners currently living  in Greece are  under temporary protection with a total 4.31 million considered to have fled Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022 according to Eurostat.

The main EU countries hosting beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine were Germany (1 251 245 people; 29.0% of total EU), Poland (954 795; 22.1%) and Czechia (373 035; 8.7%).

Compared with the end of November 2023, the largest absolute increases in the number of beneficiaries were observed in Germany (+15 285; +1.2%), Czechia (+3 705; +1.0%), and Spain (+2 255; +1.2%).

The number of beneficiaries decreased slightly in 3 EU countries, namely Italy (-125 people; -0.1%), France (-245 people; -0.4%), and Poland (-315 people; -0.0%).

Data presented in this article refer to the attribution of temporary protection status based on the Council Implementing Decision 2022/382 of 4 March 2022, establishing the existence of a mass influx of displaced persons from Ukraine due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and having the effect of introducing temporary protection. On 28 September 2023, the European Council agreed to extend the temporary protection for people fleeing from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine from 4 March 2024 to 4 March 2025.

Compared with the population of each EU country, the highest numbers of total temporary protection beneficiaries per thousand people at the end of December 2023 were observed in Czechia (34.5), Bulgaria (26.5), Estonia (26.3), Lithuania (26.2) and Poland (26.0), whereas the corresponding figure at the EU level was 9.6 per thousand people.

On 31 December 2023, Ukrainian citizens represented over 98% of the beneficiaries of temporary protection. Adult women made up almost half (46.2%) of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU. Children accounted for almost one-third (33.2%), while adult men comprised slightly more than a fifth (20.6%) of the total.