Temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees in Portugal extended for another six months

The temporary protection granted to Ukrainian refugees in Portugal will be extended for another six months, the government approved this Thursday.

The message of the Council of Ministers says that this Thursday a “decree was adopted that extends for six months the validity of temporary security documents issued to displaced persons from Ukraine.”

The Lusa agency asked the Ministry of the Interior whether this extension would be automatic, as happened when they were originally given and for a period of one year, but have not received any response so far.

Last week, the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal turned to the Service for Foreigners and Border Guards with a request to clarify the procedures that refugees from Ukraine must go through to extend the provided temporary protection, which expires on March 31.

At the time, an SEF source told Lusa that the resumption of temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees was being respected, but the procedure would have to be defined in a regulation to be approved by the Council of Ministers.

The latest update made by the SEF shows that since the start of the war, February 24, 2022, Portugal has granted temporary protection to 58,414 people, of which 34,099 are women and 24,315 are men.

The largest number of cases of temporary protection granted during the year were registered in the municipalities of Lisbon (12,461), Cascais (3,714), Porto (2,995), Sintra (1,970) and Albufeira (1,448).

Requests for temporary protection were allowed for 14,135 minors, about 25% of the total.

According to the latest UN figures, the military offensive launched by Russia on February 24, 2022 in Ukraine has so far caused the flight of more than 14 million people – 6.5 million internally displaced people and more than eight million to European countries. , which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).

At the moment, at least 18 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.

The UN has presented as confirmed 8,101 civilian deaths and 13,479 wounded since the beginning of the war, emphasizing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.