Our ability to absorb refugees is at an end, says Warsaw mayor
Poland’s capital ‘will be overwhelmed’ unless relocation system for Ukrainians is created
AT WARSAW’S eastern railway station, Ukrainian refugees are settling in for the long haul.
Exhausted by their long journey west, scores of them take advantage of the chance to get a proper meal doled out by one of the numerous yellowvested volunteers.
Others pick up free SIM cards and make long-awaited calls to loved ones back home.
Some just rest, slumped in little groups surrounded by bags and suitcases. One corner of the station’s waiting room has been furnished with blankets and mats, while a huge television screen plays Ukrainian-language cartoons for the dozens of children.
The station is supposed to be a temporary stopover, but fears are growing that many people will stay because they will have nowhere else to go.
Rafal Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw, said that its ability to absorb refugees fleeing the Ukraine war was “at an end” and that the city would be overwhelmed unless an international relocation system was created.
Nearly 2.6 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion more than two weeks ago, the UN said yesterday, making it the largest exodus of refugees in Europe since the Second World War.
‘We are not able to provide meals to refugees because of the number of them. We have not been given funds’
‘We need a European relocation system which will organise it because it is a huge logistical enterprise. We can’t improvise anymore’
Some have fled to Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, but more than half have gone to Poland, with 1,575,703 crossing into the country since Feb 24, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Warsaw has found itself on the front line of the Ukrainian refugee crisis.
A transport hub, thousands of people, mostly women and children clutching a few possessions, arrive in the city by rail and bus every day. That influx shows no signs of slowing down.
At Warsaw’s East Station, volunteers wait for another train from Ukraine to arrive with lists of organisations and individuals happy to house refugees.
But they know that every day more people arrive, the chances of finding them a place to stay grow slimmer.
According to Mr Trzaskowski, some 300,000 have arrived since war broke out, driving up Warsaw’s population by 15 per cent in a little over a fortnight.
“The government has been creating reception centres along the border but [they] need to start creating these in places such as Warsaw because our capacity, our ability to absorb, is at an end,” said Mr Trzaskowski.
“We need reception centres and we need an international system in place because this is one of the biggest migration challenges since the Balkan wars or perhaps even since the Second World War. We are going to be overwhelmed quite quickly.”
While many Ukrainians have found homes or places to stay thanks to the efforts of Polish citizens, problems are starting to emerge.
Earlier this week Joanna Niewczas, a volunteer coordinator at the Torwar conference hall in central Warsaw that has been turned into a refugee centre, attracted a huge amount of media attention by writing an open letter in which she listed a catalogue of deficiencies.
Poor hygiene standards at the centre, now home to around 500 people, has resulted in “a huge risk of an epidemic due to the lack of sanitary requirements”, she wrote.
“Volunteers are responsible for organising several thousand meals a day by calling restaurants and asking for donations.
“We are not able to provide meals to refugees because of the number of them. We have not been given funds.”
Volunteers are also using their own money to pay for medical prescriptions for the refugees, she said.
Her staff are often pulling 20-hour shifts and are “at the edge of their physical and mental endurance”, Ms Niewczas added.
The massive hall has become one of the biggest refugee centres in the region. Floor space that once hosted everything from wedding festivals to judo events, is now packed with camp beds and tables for the refugees who are bussed in by the day.
Teams of scouts hand out food and meals as part of a non-stop struggle to keep people fed.
The regional authorities have said that they are doing all they can to provide refugees with shelter, food and medical care at Torwar, and other refugee centres.
Yesterday, the Polish parliament passed legislation that will legalise the stay of refugees in the country for 18 months, grant them access to the labour market and social benefits, and also provide financial assistance to them and those hosting Ukrainians.
Yet that has done little to address growing calls for an official system to be developed that will help move some of the refugees to other countries in Europe.
“We are doing all we can but we cannot rely on improvisation anymore,” said Mr Trzaskowski. “We coordinate our work with other mayors in Poland and in Europe, and through this we send buses of refugees to other cities. But we are doing this on our own.
“We need a European relocation system which will organise it because it is a huge logistical enterprise.
“We can’t improvise anymore.”