France accepts over 100,000 Ukrainian refugees

France has accepted over 100,000 refugees from Ukraine since the start of Russia's special military operation, while the authorities do not know where half of these people have settled.

The head of the interministerial crisis centre, Prefect Joseph Zimet, said in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde published on June 3, TASS reports.

"We have received more than 100,000 Ukrainians in France. At first, we were a transit country, primarily to Spain, which opened its labour market for Ukrainians several years ago," he said.

The prefect noted that recently the dynamics of the reception of refugees have declined, but nevertheless "France receives about 300 people every week".

"We have established an effective admission system, more than 18,000 children have already gone to school," Zimet said.

"The Ukrainian authorities do not expect to return to normal life until 2023, so a significant part of the refugees will remain here next year. This requires a new approach from us to organise the resettlement of these people," the prefect stressed.

He noted that the authorities are considering the amount of benefits for French families hosting refugees. We can talk about financial assistance in the amount of € 150-200 per month.

"In order to avoid tension and competition for access to housing, the government has developed a plan to accommodate refugees in small towns, where the task was to find 7,500 housing units by late June. The task has been completed by 50 per cent, but we still need to convince Ukrainians who are used to living in megacities to go there," the head of the crisis centre said.