Around half of the Ukrainians who fled Russia’s invasion of their country have now returned to Ukraine as the number of Ukrainians entering the European Union has fallen to levels seen prior to the war.
European Union home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson announced that the situation has largely stabilised and that the number of Ukrainians coming into the EU has fallen to levels seen before the February invasion by Russian military forces.
“When it comes to the refugee flows, the situation now is stable,” Johansson said, adding: “The crossings between the EU and Ukraine, the numbers are pre-war, pre-COVID level, so we are back to like a normal number of people crossing,” broadcaster Deutsche Welle reports.
The European Union border agency Frontex has also stated that around half of all of the Ukrainians who fled to the EU since February have since returned and many more are expected to return before the new school year.
“I foresee that a lot of Ukrainians in the EU will take a decision before school starts — where to start school, in an EU member-state or going back to Ukraine to start school there,” Commissioner Johansson said.
The figures come as various agencies have reported a slowdown in the number of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion in recent weeks and months. As early as April, a spokesman for Ukrainian Border Security claimed that nearly a million Ukrainians had already returned to the country.
“They say they see that the situation is safer, especially in the western regions, and they cannot stay abroad any longer,” the spokesman said.
Last month, Frontex announced that for the first time since the start of the invasion the number of Ukrainians returning to Ukraine had surpassed those fleeing to the EU.
While many Ukrainians are returning to their country, others may be at risk of human trafficking schemes in the EU according to the Eu police agency Europol, which reported finding several schemes aimed at Ukrainian refugees last month.
“During the action day, investigators identified suspicious advertisements targeting Ukrainian refugees, looked into tips received from citizens, reviewed indicators of potential trafficking of human beings for sexual and labour exploitation and updated their situational awareness on existing online platforms linked to trafficking activities,” Europol said.
As Ukrainians return home, other asylum seekers who have come to Europe during the height of the migrant crisis have largely remained there, with around 130,000 failed asylum seekers expected to be given residency status in Germany under a new government provision.
Many Syrians who arrived during the migrant crisis have also gained German citizenship, with the number of Syrian nationals becoming German citizens tripling in 2021 to 105,300.