Joseph Zimet, the prefect in charge of welcoming the displaced, believes that a large number of them will still be there in a year and that housing systems must be solidify, while citizen accommodation gives signs of shortness of breath.
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The prefect Joseph Zimet pilots the Interministerial Crisis cell (CIC) on the reception of people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. He announces the implementation of financial aid to avoid the risk of shortens of citizen accommodation and a relaxation of policy vis-à-vis non-Ukrainian students who fled the war.
The war in Ukraine started over four months ago. How much France has welcomed displaced?
We have crossed the threshold of 100,000 Ukrainians welcomed in France. We were first of all a transit country, notably towards Spain, which opened its labor market in the Ukrainians for a few years, while in France, before the war, we only identified 19,000 Ukrainians on the territory. In the first weeks of the conflict, the SNCF sent 10,000 people from Paris to Spain while more than 15,000 Ukrainians entered France by the Alpes-Maritimes to continue their journey to Spain. We did not understand why France capped around 50,000 displaced people welcomed. It was probably lacking in notoriety and attractiveness in the eyes of the displaced. For comparison, Poland welcomes nearly 1.2 million Ukrainians, Germany, 800,000, Spain, 140,000, and the United Kingdom, 86,000.
But even though we were wondering about the end of the crisis, the arrivals continued to increase and, before summer, we turned to the 100,000 displaced. Even if the trend is rather down, we continue to welcome around 300 people each week, especially from Italy. No doubt because of the quality of the reception and the solidarity of the French, the efforts of local authorities and the state services. We can say that we have been able to deploy a dignified and effective reception device. More than 18,000 children are already educated. It is a feat. Ukrainians are incredibly well informed of this.
Do you observe returns to Ukraine?
A study by the European Union agency for asylum specifies that 84 % of the displaced people reported having found their destination. It means that 15 % will move. We must expect movements this summer, rocking between European countries – even if we cannot accumulate two temporary protections – and back in Ukraine, even if we think that these people will be in the majority of return to the start of the school year, Given instability in the country. The idea prevailed a few months ago that the Ukrainians would come home quickly. On June 28, the mayor of Irpine [a few kilometers from kyiv] signed a declaration of intent with the Association of Mayors of France to mobilize French municipalities around the process of reconstruction of the city. However, the Ukrainian authorities do not anticipate a return to normal before 2023.
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