|Published on: 26th June 2025|Categories: News|
The updated AIDA Country Report on Ukraine provides a detailed overview on legislative and practice-related developments in asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum applicants and content of international protection in 2024.
A number of key developments are set out below.
- Ongoing war: Due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the ongoing war, the number of new asylum applicants and developments regarding the country’s asylum system are limited compared to previous years. (e.g. 2,700 asylum applicants in 2021).
Asylum procedure
- Statistics: There were 106 asylum applications in Ukraine in 2024 (including 34 from Russia, 17 from Tajikistan and 8 from Belarus). A total of 810 new and extended asylum certificates were issued. In the preliminary stage of the asylum procedure, the authorities made 69 decisions to send cases to further examination and they issued 17 negative decisions. In the further examination procedure, of a total of 216 decisions, five resulted in the granting of refugee status, 48 in the granting of national complementary protection and 163 in rejection (25% protection rate).
- Access to the territory and the asylum procedure: In February 2023, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted new legislation which, inter alia, limited the right to apply for asylum at the border. According to the authorities, no applications for protection were made at border crossings between January and July 2024. Between January and April 2024, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine issued 402 refusals of entry to allegedly irregular migrants and detained 1,577 others for “illegally crossing the border, breaching the rules of staying in the territory of Ukraine and other violations”. The absence of an effective judicial remedy against refusals of entry into the territory remained a serious issue in 2024.
- Unaccompanied minors: In its 2024 communication to the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, the Ukrainian government specifically highlighted its commitment to ensuring access for unaccompanied minors to all of their rights during the asylum procedure, including access to and participation of a legal representative and a lawyer. It also highlighted its commitment to the proactive identification of parents or other legal representatives for the minors. No unaccompanied minors applied for international protection in Ukraine in 2024.
Reception conditions
- Reception capacity and occupancy: Ukraine’s three reception centres had a total capacity of 421 places in 2024. At the end of the year, they were accommodating just 2 people: one in Zakarpattia region and the other in Yahotyn.
- Access to the labour market: Asylum applicants in Ukraine have the right to be employed, subject to their employer receiving a work permit for foreigners and stateless people. Employment centres issued three of these permits in 2024.
Detention of asylum applicants
- Detention capacity and statistics: In 2024, there were three functioning detention centres for foreigners and stateless people considered to be staying in Ukraine irregularly. They had a total capacity of 566 places. The Chernihiv Migrant Custody Centre (MCC), which had been damaged by Russian shelling, resumed operation in May 2024. A total of 253 people (not necessarily asylum applicants) were placed in the MCCs in 2024 and 131 were released.
- Access to asylum and legal assistance in detention: In practice, access to asylum procedures from MCCs has been complicated by issues relating to access to information on asylum procedures and free legal assistance, and limited visits by the local State Migration Service of Ukraine (SMS) office, particularly since the full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022. This situation continued in 2024. Also in 2024, members of Right to Protection’s (R2P) legal team carried out bimonthly visits to the Zhuravichi MCC, including to provide legal assistance.
Content of international protection
- Access to protection certificates and travel documents: In 2024, the SMS issued 50 travel documents to refugees and 93 travel documents to people in need of complementary protection. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, beneficiaries who fled from Ukraine have been unable to receive or extend their certificates and travel documents abroad. In some cases, they have also been unable to obtain a certificate for return to Ukraine from a diplomatic mission abroad. As a result, they have not been able to enter Ukraine even to renew their documents. However, in 2024, and with the support of R2P lawyers, a number of people with complementary protection were final able to obtain return permits from Ukrainian embassies abroad.
- Naturalisation: Nobody with refugee status obtained Ukrainian citizenship in 2023 or 2024.
The full report is available here.
For more information about the AIDA database or to read other AIDA reports, please visit the AIDA website.
