While 2.2 million refugees from Ukraine who have arrived in the EU since 24 February have applied for the Temporary Protection Directive, the European Commission told MEPs in the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties on Wednesday 20 April that the platform for registering refugees and pooling Member States’ reception data, announced by interior ministers on 28 March, would not be ready until “the end of May”.
The platform is intended to help Member States and the Commission to find out where refugees are, as around 1.7 million people are believed to have left Poland to settle in other Member States.
This platform, which does not require a new legal basis, takes time to develop, “because it is not about storing biometric data”, but digital data, and all “data protection requirements” have to be met.
The platform, which the Commission said it was designing with the EU-Lisa agency, should also be “easy to use” for national authorities, added Commission representative Beate Gminder, who came to take stock of the activation in early March of this 2001 directive designed to offer temporary protection to the millions of Ukrainians or third country nationals legally resident in Ukraine.
While the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported on 20 April that 5 million people had now fled Ukraine, the Commission notes that return movements to Ukraine are now “greater” than arrivals in neighbouring countries. According to Reuters figures, 1 million people have returned to Ukraine.
While the Commission did not give figures on Wednesday, it said those travelling back to Ukraine were mainly staying at the border with EU countries.
On another aspect of European action, the Commission also indicated on Wednesday that the Member States had so far committed themselves to 20,000 reception places for refugees in Moldova, but only “1,000 transfers” had been made from that country, with the Commission noting the desire of those concerned not to move too far away from Ukraine.
Several MEPs questioned the Commission on long-term action, notably to house refugees beyond emergency accommodation, which Beate Gminder acknowledged was a “challenge”.
Others asked the Commission to ensure that local authorities received the money needed to organise this care for refugees. The Commission also responded to concerns about migrants held in some Ukrainian detention centres, all of whom have been released, but some of whom do not wish to leave Ukraine, according to Ms Gminder.
The Commission should present another major communication on the reception and access of Ukrainians to education, housing and employment, said the representative. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)