AIDA Country Report on Ukraine

The AIDA Country Report on Ukraine provides a detailed analysis of legislative and practice-related developments in asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum applicants and content of international protection in Ukraine in 2023. It is the first AIDA country report on Ukraine and was written by the Ukrainian organisation Right to Protection (R2P).

In 2023, 130 people applied for international protection in Ukraine. 138 decisions were taken by the authorities at the preliminary stage of the asylum procedure, resulting in 115 referrals for further examination (83%) and 23 rejections. At the same time, 265 decisions were taken in the further examination procedure, resulting in 212 rejections (80%) and the awarding of refugee status in eight cases and complementary protection in 45 others. It is important to note that these numbers are low compared to previous years, mainly due to the humanitarian and displacement crisis which was triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. For comparison, in 2021, Ukrainian authorities granted refugee or complementary protection status to 2,382 people. In the first half of 2022, at least 1,283 asylum applicants in Ukraine fled the country and it is estimated that approximately 70% of all asylum applicants and protection beneficiaries left during the course of the year.

In February 2023, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted new legislation which, inter alia, limited the right to apply for asylum at the border. In certain cases, including ‘when a person concerned has reached Ukraine from a country where their life and freedom are not in danger’ or ‘when a person concerned irregularly attempts or crosses the border of Ukraine to a third country, while martial law is in force’, people can be denied access to the territory without an assessment of their individual circumstances or any effective opportunity to appeal. In addition, in 2023, people who applied for asylum in a migration custody centre received letters from the authorities informing them that their applications would not be registered, thus placing them in legal limbo and at risk of deportation.

Since the full-scale invasion by Russia, Ukrainian authorities have used the imposition of martial law and a strict application of the five-day registration time limit as justifications for not registering or processing applications, despite the fact that current legislation does not foresee restrictions to the right to seek asylum.

Since 2022, beneficiaries of international protection (BIPs) who fled Ukraine have not been able to issue or extend their protection certificates or travel documents from abroad. At the same time, some of them have not been able to obtain certificates from Ukrainian diplomatic missions to allow them to return to the country. As a result, some BIPs are unable to renew their documents abroad or to re-enter Ukraine to renew them on the territory. Ukrainian authorities have, however, continued to issue travel documents for BIPs on the territory (172 in 2023). The number of requests remains high and travel documents issued to BIPs in Ukraine are recognised by most EU member states and Schengen states.

The full report is available here.

For more information about the AIDA database or to read other AIDA reports, please visit the AIDA website.