Spain has granted temporary protection to more than 200,000 Ukrainian citizens since March 9, 2022, the activation of this extraordinary protection mechanism that immediately grants residence and work permits to those displaced by the Russian invasion.

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Spain exceeds 200,000 temporary protections granted to Ukrainian citizens

As of February 26, the Asylum and Refuge Office (OAR) of the Ministry of Interior and the National Police have processed and granted a total of 200,154 protections. 61.1 per cent of the people who have obtained this figure in Spain are women (122,400) and 38.9 per cent are men (77,754). By age group, 31.3 percent are under 18; 26.6 percent are between 19 and 35; 35.4 percent are between 36 and 64; and 6.7 percent are over 65.

Furthermore, most of the people who have obtained temporary protection, 98 per cent, are Ukrainian nationals, while the remaining 2 per cent are citizens of other nationalities who were legally residing in Ukrainian territory when the war broke out.

Comunitat Valenciana (55,835), Catalonia (45,150), Andalusia (29,588) and Madrid (28,087) are the autonomous communities in which more temporary protections have been processed and granted.

Extension of foreign identity cards
This Tuesday, the Ministry of the Interior also extended for another year, until March 4, 2025, the foreigner identity cards (TIE) issued to Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection and whose validity was due to expire on March 4, 2025. The order, signed by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, was published today in the Official State Gazette (BOE).

For reasons “of effectiveness and efficiency”, according to the text of the ministerial order published today, instead of issuing new TIEs, the Ministry of the Interior is extending the validity of the cards already issued for another year and it will not be necessary to obtain a new document. The extension also responds to the extension of the temporary protection until March 4, 2025, agreed by the EU Council of Interior Ministers last October 19.

The first activation of the European Directive
On March 9, 2022, the Ministries of Interior and Inclusion, Social Security and Migration signed the order that developed the emergency procedure for the recognition of temporary protection to citizens from Ukraine. With this procedure, Spain complied with the agreement reached on March 4, 2022, by the Council of Interior Ministers of the European Union to activate, for the first time in history, the European Directive on Temporary Protection.

The mechanism activated by the Asylum and Refuge Office (OAR) of the Ministry of the Interior makes it possible to grant temporary protection in an agile and simple manner. The procedure is initiated at the National Police stations throughout the country and at the authorized reception centres, where National Police officers, supported by interpreters, are in charge of taking the identification data of Ukrainian citizens.

All the processed temporary protections entail a residence permit and, for those of legal age, a work permit. In addition, according to the provisions of the General Directorate of Traffic, displaced persons who obtain temporary protection can legally use their driving licenses.