Local efforts to integrate displaced persons fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine: challenges and promising practices

Asylum, migration and borders
Legal migration and integration
Local authorities and communities across the EU are hosting people displaced from Ukraine after the Russian invasion according to the requirements of the Temporary Protection Directive and beyond. FRA is exploring the challenges that local authorities experience when implementing the Directive, focusing on access to housing, education, employment and healthcare. The research looks at 26 cities or regions hosting large numbers of temporary protection beneficiaries in 12 Member States. The report will identify challenges as well as effective and innovative measures taken to address these issues at local levels.
Project Status
Ongoing
Project start date
October
2022
Report / Paper / Summary
12
December
2023

​Fleeing Ukraine: Implementing temporary protection at local levels

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced millions of people to flee. Arriving in EU countries, they received protection in EU law under the Temporary Protection Directive. Many have begun to build a new life in their host country and enrich our societies in new ways. Local authorities took the lead in ensuring access to fundamental rights under temporary protection. This report explores the measures to ensure access to housing, education, employment and healthcare in 26 cities and regional authorities across 12 EU Member States. Despite unprecedented coordination and cooperation to overcome challenges, many uncertainties remain. Longer-term solutions will be needed after the directive expires in March 2025. Based on the information collected, the report identifies 12 priority actions and builds on FRA’s bulletins and survey findings on experiences of people displaced from Ukraine.
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What?

Local authorities and communities across the EU are hosting people displaced from Ukraine after the Russian invasion according to the requirements of the Temporary Protection Directive and beyond. FRA is exploring the challenges that local authorities experience when implementing the Directive, focusing on access to housing, education, employment and healthcare.

The research looks at 26 cities or regions hosting large numbers of temporary protection beneficiaries in 12 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden. The report will identify challenges as well as effective and innovative measures taken to address these issues at local levels.

Data will be collected based on desk research, consultations with local authorities and a small-scale survey with local support service providers.

Why?

Since 24 February 2022, the European Union has experienced a mass influx of people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. In response, the European Council has activated the 2001 EU Temporary Protection Directive through Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/382 of 4 March 2022 for the first time. The Directive defines the requirements for Member States to ensure beneficiaries’ access to suitable housing, education, employment and medical care, including assistance to be provided to persons with special needs, such as unaccompanied children or victims of torture, rape or other serious forms of violence.

The project aims at supporting the implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive at local level. Comparative data on local-level challenges and measures is limited and random. To address this gap, the project aims to provide visibility to the efforts and solutions found by local authorities to effectively ensure access to selected rights provided by the Directive, and encourage an exchange of good practices.

How?

The research will be based on

  • Desk research, relying primarily on public sources and
  • Consultations with two to three experts from local authorities in each of the selected cities/regions, carried out by FRANET, and
  • A small-scale survey with three to four support service providers per city/region, carried out by FRA.
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