some 85,000 Ukrainian refugees in France since the beginning of the conflict

Three months after the start of the war in Ukraine, some 85,000 Ukrainian refugees in France benefit from the allowance for asylum seekers (Ada), according to Didier Leschi, the director of the French Office for Immigration and integration, Tuesday 24 May. This is the most reliable indicator for measuring the number of displaced Ukrainians settled in France since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.

Among them, 45,000 have been issued payment cards, and the allowances are issued at the rate of “300 per day”, said the director general of the organization. Thanks to the “temporary protection” initiated by the European Union, Ukrainian refugees can benefit from the Ada even without an official asylum application. It amounts to 6.80 euros per day and per person.

Of these 85,000 people, “8,000 are in housing”, while the others are housed in reception facilities or through homestay accommodation. At the beginning of March, France had anticipated the arrival of “50,000, maybe 100,000 refugees” of this conflict, according to the words of the pilot of the interministerial crisis unit on Ukraine, Joseph Zimet. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees identified on Sunday more than 6.5 million displaced people who fled Ukraine, more than half of them in Poland.