Live War Ukraine. Two victims in Russian attack on Ukrainian brewery AB InBev – Japan uses fighter jets to keep Russian bombers in holes

More than 92,000 Ukrainians already received temporary protection in our country

Between 2022 and the end of last year, more than 92,200 Ukrainians received temporary protection in our country. This is according to figures that the Director General of the Immigration Office Freddy Roosemont gave on Wednesday in the Interior Committee.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2022, the European Union decided to provide an exceptional procedure for Ukrainian refugees in the EU. Since then and certainly until the spring of 2026 they have a special status, in which they do not have to go through the traditional asylum procedure to get a right of residence. That means that they have access to issues such as housing, health care, education and the labor market much faster than other refugees.

According to the latest figures from the European Commission, 4.3 million Ukrainians already received temporary protection in the entire EU. Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic catch most Ukrainians.

In Belgium, 92,257 temporary protection statuses were awarded to Ukrainians until the end of last year, figures that DVZ boss Freddy Roosemont quoted in the Chamber on Wednesday. In 2022 there was a large influx of more than 63,354 Ukrainians, but also in 2023 and 2024 many Ukrainian refugees received the temporary protection in our country: 15,626 and 13,277 respectively. Not all of those people still stay on Belgian territory. The number of applications is also somewhat higher than 92,000, because not every Ukrainian who applied for temporary protection met the European conditions, Roosemont explained.