Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, 178,687 refugees with Ukrainian citizenship have been recorded in the Central Register of Foreigners (AZR) in North Rhine-Westphalia. Another 5,709 people with a different nationality have fled Ukraine since February 24 and have been registered in North Rhine-Westphalia. This emerges from a response from the Düsseldorf State Ministry for Flight and Integration to a small request from the AfD member of the state parliament Enxhi Seli-Zacharias. Around two thirds of those affected are therefore female refugees.
However, there are no figures for NRW on the number of people who have returned or traveled on, since departures are usually not reported, as the NRW Ministry explained. In Germany, a total of more than 915,000 war refugees had been registered in the central register of foreigners since the end of February – as of July 19. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 890,605 of them were Ukrainian citizens. How many of the people are currently still in Germany is unclear, it said. A significant number may have already traveled to other countries or returned to Ukraine.
According to another response from the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry, refugees from the Ukraine are recorded not only with personal data, but also with biometric images or fingerprints. A digital process is used for this, with which refugees are not only registered, but also assigned to municipalities. At peak times, up to 10,000 registrations per week could be made with this method.
Ukrainians can also enter Germany with their papers without having to submit an application. In particular, those who stay with friends or relatives and do not apply for any state aid initially do not appear in any official statistics.
