Warsaw overwhelmed as it becomes key refugee destination
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Warsaw’s mayor is appealing for international help as the city becomes overwhelmed by refugees, with more than a tenth of all those fleeing the war in Ukraine arriving in the Polish capital.
Some seek to wait out the war or settle in the city, while others merely use Warsaw as a transit point to head further west, turning the city’s train stations into crowded hubs where people are camping out on floors.
“We are dealing with the greatest migration crisis in the history of Europe since World War II. … The situation is getting more and more difficult every day,” Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski said, adding that “the greatest challenge is still ahead of us.”
The welcome Warsaw has given Ukrainians as the neighbouring nation struggles to resist Russia’s invasion is wholehearted. Across the city, people have mobilised to help. They are taking Ukrainians into their homes, gathering donations and volunteering at reception centers. City monuments and buses fly Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flag in solidarity.
Housing is also a growing problem. When the war began, 95 percent of Ukrainians arriving in Warsaw were people who already had friends or family here and were taken in by them. Today that group is 70 percent of the new arrivals meaning that 30 percent of them “need a roof over their heads” and other support, the mayor said Friday.
The decline in the city’s ability to absorb a massive number of new arrivals comes as the people fleeing war are those who have witnessed greater trauma than those who arrived earlier, or who are more vulnerable.
Late Thursday 15 disabled Ukrainian children arrived at the Medyka border crossing in Poland, and were put on a special makeshift medical train taking them to various hospitals in the country.
The war has already forced 2.5 million people to flee, according to the International Organization for Migration on Friday, and more than half of those go to Poland. As of Friday more than 1.5 million refugees had entered Poland, according to Poland’s Border Guard agency.
Trzaskowski said that over 320,000 people have travelled through Warsaw since the start of the war and that 230,000 people were staying in the city of more than 1.7 million people.
