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Spain Has Granted Temporary Protection to Over 160k Ukrainian Refugees in 2022
According to a press release issued today by the government of Spain, since March 10, when temporary protection was activated for the refugees from Ukraine, and up until December 28, Wednesday, when the scheme was put to an end, a total of 160,756 protections for Ukrainian refugees have been processed and granted by the Asylum and Refuge Office (OAR) of the Ministry of the Interior and the National Police.
After the mechanism was activated the OAR was enabled to quickly and easily process temporary protection applications within a period of 24 hours the longest, making it possible to process this many protections within ten months, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
“This data places Spain among the European countries that have granted the most protections to citizens and residents of Ukraine,” the press release points out.
In addition, data show that women make up 63.47 per cent of the people who have obtained temporary protection in Spain, or a total of 102,034, while men make up 36.53 per cent, or more precisely a total of 58,722.
Regarding their age, 33.69 per cent are minors, while 25.33 per cent are between 19 and 35 years old, 34.17 per cent are between the age of 36 and 64, and 6.8 per cent older than 65 years.
“In addition, most of the people who have obtained temporary protection, 98.31 per cent, are citizens of Ukrainian nationality, while the remaining 1.69 per cent correspond to citizens of other nationalities who were legally residing in Ukrainian territory when war broke out,” the government points out.
The autonomous communities with the highest number of temporary protections processed and granted are the Valencian Community with 42,739 protections, Catalonia with 36,641, Madrid with 22,963, and Andalusia with 22,939 protections processed and granted.
Throughout the year, refugees could apply for protection at the authorised reception centers. Once their application was approved, they received their residence permit, and those of legal working age received their work permit as well.
In addition, Ukrainian refugees who obtained temporary protection in Spain are permitted to use their Ukrainian driving licenses, for at least one year, for driving in the Spanish territory.
The EU country that has taken in the highest number of Ukrainian refugees is Germany, with over one million of them. Whereas, the total number of Ukrainians who have received temporary protection in the EU is almost five billion.