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Europe’s refugee burden is looming and Poland has set an example
In response to its destabilising next-door war, as Turkey did with Syrians, Poland has taken in about a million Ukrainians
David Lepeska
Since the war began, about 150,000 Ukrainians have been fleeing every day into neighbouring states. That rate has begun to fall as the conflict grinds toward its fourth week, but it may tick back up with potentially intense fighting looming in Kyiv, Odessa and western Ukraine. Either way, the total number of Ukrainian refugees looks set to hit three million this week and could surge past four million by the end of the month.
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Ukraine’s conflict, however dire, is not yet the Syrian civil war: since 2011 more than 13 million Syrians have been forced from their homes, more than half the country’s pre-war population, including nearly seven million refugees. Thus far, about 11-12 per cent of Ukraine’s 45 million citizens have been displaced and 7 per cent have fled abroad.
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Perhaps driven by its own historical clashes with Russia, Poland has stood out with its generosity – welcoming nearly two million Ukrainians with no help from top aid groups like the Red Cross or UN refugee agency because Poles have opened their homes, hotels and hearts. It’s a good start, but more than likely, it really is merely the beginning.
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It seems contradictory, given all the lockdowns and stay-at-home orders of the past two years, but perhaps it’s fitting that this pandemic era is also an age of exile. Never before in human history have so many people been displaced from their homes, more than 85 million, according to the UN refugee agency, or more than 1 per cent of humanity...
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