About 4 million Ukrainians who received the status of temporary protection in EU countries will be able to officially stay there until March 2026. This week, the Council of the European Union decided to extend temporary protection for our fellow citizens for a year.
“While bombs are falling on Ukraine, the situation there is dangerous. Today, the ministers once again demonstrated solidarity and decided that they will continue to offer protection to the Ukrainian people in the EU.” – said the Belgian State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor after the decision to continue granting asylum to Ukrainians was upheld.
The conditions for granting temporary protection were agreed on March 4, 2022. Then the Council of the European Union set the validity period of such status for Ukrainians until March 2025. However, in view of the continuation of intense hostilities on the territory of Ukraine and the fact that civilians die almost every day, European officials decided to prolong the stay of Ukrainian refugees in EU countries.
Temporary protection status is legally and factually different from refugee status. It gives broader rights to people who have received asylum in one or another country. In addition, the status of temporary protection does not involve individual consideration of the cases of each asylum seeker, as was the case with refugees from Syria, for example, and provides immediate and collective protection to a large group of displaced persons who are unable to return to their country of origin.
People with this status, unlike refugees, can independently choose their place of residence, have free access to the labor market and housing, receive medical and social assistance, and access to education at the same level as citizens of the country in which they are staying.
The EU law on temporary protection sets minimum standards of protection. The actual level of assistance may differ in different EU countries.
We will remind you that the flow of Ukrainian refugees to EU countries has practically stopped. In April, for the first time since February 2022, more citizens returned to the country than left. In general, from January to April 2024, those who left were only 69 thousand people more than those who returned.
