Since the beginning of the conflict, 8 million people have fled Ukraine for Europe, including more than 100,000 bound for France.
Not since the Second World War has Europe experienced such an exodus of population. More than 8 million people from Ukraine have taken refuge with their European neighbors after fleeing violence and bombing, according to the latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released on Tuesday February 21, almost a year day after the beginning of the Russian invasion in the country.
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Among the countries of the European Union, it is Germany which has received the largest number of exiles with more than 900,000 taken in charge. In France, approximately 115,000 Ukrainians (or rather Ukrainian women, in the overwhelming majority of cases) are still received under temporary protection. Franceinfo takes stock of the profile of these refugees settled in France.
A large majority of women and children
As pointed out on Thursday 23 February at Parisian the Secretary of State for Citizenship, Sonia Backès, refugees from the Ukrainian conflict in France “are 80% Ukrainians”. A figure which is explained in particular by the mobilization of men in Ukraine, where 18-60 year olds are still prohibited from leaving the territory. This predominantly female population is accompanied by many children, 20,000 of whom are currently attending school in France, explained Sonia Backès.
This distribution between men and women is found in other host countries. In Germany, a survey published in December by the Federal Bureau of Immigration showed that the flow of refugees from Ukraine was, there too, made up of 80% women. Three quarters of them fled without their spouse, the study also underlines (in English).
Thanks to the temporary protection status, the citizens of Ukraine welcomed in France have had “immediate access to the labor market and to reimbursed health care”, welcomed on franceinfo Delphine Rouilleault, director general of France land of asylum. “They have not experienced the obstacle course that political refugees and other migrants experience in France”, she pointed out. Among these refugees, some have joined the ranks of the catering and other sectors understaffed.
Nearly 500 million euros released to welcome them
In order to accommodate these tens of thousands of people and their children, the State has disbursed 490 million euros in one year, as Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin explained to AFP on Thursday. Nearly half of this sum was used to pay allowances to beneficiaries of temporary protection. The rest was spent “for accommodation”specifies the minister, to open places in emergency reception centers, but also in requisitioned tourist establishments, such as campsites or hotels.
“Up to 30,000 people have been housed by citizensthis is a completely new phenomenon.pointed out Sonia Backès to the Parisian, adding that more than three-quarters of Ukrainian refugees had been hosted in towns with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants. As the Ministry of Housing explained to AFP on Wednesday, thehe State has set up a system of financial aid for certain French families hosting Ukrainian refugees. A first in France, which involved nearly 900 homes and cost around 780,000 euros.
While Russia shows no intention of ceasing hostilities, population movements continue inside and outside the country. According to the UNHCR, the conflict has already left nearly 7 million internally displaced. In the rest of Europe, the exodus has not stopped, but arrivals are now trickling in: a few hundred new refugees on average have arrived in France each month since the start of the winter season. However, the Ministry of the Interior does not want to close the accommodation centers too quickly, “assuming secondary movements”.