<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Spain is the fourth country in Europe that has welcomed the most Ukrainian refugees with temporary protection status since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, according to the latest Eurostat data, corresponding to September and published this Friday.</strong></h4> As of 30 September 2024, almost 4.2 million citizens who fled Ukraine as a result of the war benefited from temporary protection status in the EU, a mechanism that was activated on 4 March 2022, just a few days after the Russian armed forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and which has been automatically extended every year. The European Council has already extended temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees until 4 March 2026. The EU countries that have welcomed the largest number of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine are Germany (1,129,335 people; 26.9% of the EU total), Poland (979,835; 23.3%) and the Czech Republic (378,480; 9.0%). Spain is in fourth place, with 218,300 people. Compared to the end of August 2024, the largest absolute increases in the number of beneficiaries are observed in Germany (+7,005; +0.6%), Poland (+4,645; +0.5%) and Spain (+3,170; +1.5%). The number of beneficiaries has decreased in France (-570; -0.9%) and Italy (-10; -0.0%). At the end of September 2024, the share of beneficiaries of temporary protection from Ukraine in relation to the EU population was 9.3 per thousand people. The Czech Republic (34.7), ahead of Lithuania (28.1) and Poland (26.8), had the highest ratios. In Spain, the ratio is 4.5 Ukrainian refugees per thousand inhabitants. During the third quarter of 2024, EU countries issued 215,840 new temporary protection grants. In addition, the Ukrainian population accounts for more than 98.3% of temporary protection beneficiaries. Adult women make up almost half (45.0%) of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU, children account for almost a third (32.3%) and adult men account for more than a fifth (22.7%) of the total. Temporary protection is an EU emergency mechanism that is activated in exceptional circumstances of mass influx of people. The EU Temporary Protection Directive was adopted in 2001, following mass displacements that took place in Europe due to the armed conflicts in the Western Balkans, in particular from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
