hosting displaced people cost France 634 million euros in 2022

The reception of Ukrainians since the start of the Russian invasion has cost France around 634 million euros, estimated the Court of Auditors, in a flash audit report made public on Tuesday, February 28. The approximately 115,000 displaced Ukrainians who arrived in France in one year were received in “satisfactory conditions”thanks to the novel system of “temporary protection”, judges the Court. This status allowed them to settle freely while benefiting from an unprecedented burst of social rights: access to work, health services, schooling for children, emergency accommodation, etc.

The bulk of State expenditure concerns the allowance paid to these displaced persons (218.46 million euros) and the cost of their accommodation (253.27 million euros). The financial jurisdiction noted a significant additional cost, which is mainly due “emergency” in which this reception had to be organised. So the “unit cost” for a Ukrainian represented in 2022 “almost double that of the systems offered to traditional asylum seekers“, underlined the Court. In detail, for the accommodation, “the cost per place and per day amounted to 38 euros on average nationally, where sheltering under common law (…) is on average less than 20 euros and [inférieure] to 18 euros in the national system for the reception of asylum seekers”.

The administrative authority also recommended “better supervise citizen accommodation”, on which weighs 40% of the weight of the reception. Since the end of 2022, nearly 900 households hosting displaced Ukrainians have received financial aid from the State, of around 150 euros per month. This represents an envelope of some 786,000 euros, according to the Ministry of Housing. Problem: The Court ruled that “the ability to maintain compensation” is not “not guaranteed”.