Spain exceeded 160,000 temporary protections for war refugees from Ukraine, ten months after the start of the conflict. Since the activation of the procedure on 10 March, and up to the end of this Wednesday, the Office for Asylum and Refugees (OAR) of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Police have processed and granted a total of 160,756 protections to Ukrainian refugees in our country.
This figure places Spain among the European countries that have granted the most protection to citizens and residents from Ukraine. All this is possible thanks to the urgent mechanism put in place by the Government of Spain on 10 March to comply with the EU agreement which, for the first time in history, authorised the application of the Temporary Protection Directive.
A total of 63.47% of the people who have obtained this temporary protection are women (102,034) and 36.53% are men (58,722). By age group, 33.69% are under 18, 25.33% are between 19 and 35, 34.17% are between 36 and 64, and 6.8% are over 65.
Moreover, the majority of those granted temporary protection, 98.31%, are Ukrainian nationals, while the remaining 1.69% are citizens of other nationalities who were legally residing in Ukraine when the war broke out.
The Valencian Community (42,739), Catalonia (36,641), Madrid (22,963), and Andalusia (22,939) are the autonomous communities where most temporary protection has been processed and granted.
The mechanism activated by the Office for Asylum and Refugees (OAR) of the Ministry of Home Affairs is quick and easy and grants temporary protection to refugees within 24 hours of their application.
The procedure begins at the National Police stations throughout the country and at the authorised reception centres, where National Police officers, supported by interpreters, are responsible for taking identification data from Ukrainian citizens. The application is then processed by the OAR of the Ministry of Home Affairs and is resolved within 24 hours.
Temporary refuge includes a residence permit and always, for adults, a work permit. Additionally, and under the provisions of the Directorate-General for Traffic, displaced persons who have obtained temporary protection can legally use their driving licences in Spain for at least one year.
Non official translation
