Finland Has Granted Temporary Protection to Over 25,000 Ukrainians So Far

The Finnish Immigration Service said that since February, a total of 28,039 temporary protection applications had been submitted by Ukrainians.

Despite receiving such a high number of applications, the Immigration Service points out that 26,108 decisions have been made based on these applications by June 15, 2022, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

Almost all of these decisions (25,892) have been positive. This means that more than 25,000 Ukrainians got granted temporary protection.

The Immigration Service of Finland noted that the number of applications for temporary protection is getting lower compared to the previous months. The country currently registers around one thousand applications for temporary protection each week. On the other hand, in min-March, Finland received more than 1,200 applications per day.

Since there have been fewer applications, the processing time has been shorter. The Immigration Service explains that the estimated protection time of a temporary protection application is currently around seven days.

“In the spring, when the temporary protection process was first started, there were delays in the service of decisions. After the beginning of May, however, applicants have received their decision rather quickly if there was no need to complement the application with missing information, such as a photograph,” Director of Asylum Unit at the Finnish Immigration Service, Antti Lehtinen, said.

Ukrainians who apply for temporary protection in Finland may start working as soon as their application has been registered by the police or the border control authority.

Apart from granting temporary protection to nationals of Ukraine, the Finnish authorities explain that protection can also be granted to citizens of countries outside the European Union/Schengen Area.

Previously, atozserwisplus.com reported that Bulgaria and Lithuania registered increased numbers of temporary protection applications filed by Ukrainians. The European Office for Statistics, Eurostat, said that Bulgaria and Lithuania experienced an increased number of temporary protection permit receivers in April 2022. Bulgaria granted 30,965, and Lithuania granted 21,800 temporary protection permits in April.

On the other hand, Poland, Slovakia, and Portugal registered a decrease in the number of temporary protection statuses granted to nationals of Ukraine in April.

Taking into account the overall number of permits that have been granted since the beginning of the war, Czechia leads the table. Until the end of April, Czechia granted temporary protection to 22.9 people per one thousand inhabitants. Czechia was followed by Poland (17.8), Slovakia (10.8), and Estonia (10.5).