Russian-Ukrainian talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine resumed on Friday (April 1). Thirty-seven days after the start of the Russian invasion, more than 4.1 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country, According to the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to seek refuge abroad. “Forced to flee to stay alive”, emphasizes the UNHCR. Poland accompanies on its soil more than half of all refugees from Ukraine. A welcome that also represents a logistical challenge for European countries. Overview.
In Poland, a smaller flow of refugees than at the start of the war
More than 2.4 million refugees from Ukraine have already reached Poland. These days between 25,000 and 30,000 people arrive daily, this is less than the more than 100,000 daily refugees of the first weeks. The integration phase is not without challenges, because large cities like Warsaw or Krakow have seen their population increase by around 20% since the start of the war, which still represents 300,000 more people in Warsaw. The time for improvisation is over, said the mayor of the capital.
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While many individuals have hosted Ukrainian families and temporary reception centers have been set up for a few nights, this is only for the short term. Finding accommodation for these long-term refugees will be complicated. “In Warsaw it is almost impossible even for those who can paysays Dominika Pszczółkowska of the Center for Migration Research at the University of Warsaw. Of course most cannot pay. The government is doing little to address these issues. There are resources with people who want to host refugees in smaller towns, but the information is not distributed enough.”
Most of #refugees from Ukraine who joined Poland are women and children
See Olga’s storyhttps://t.co/1ECMt8yoZw#UNHCR #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/mIsBvMrQBw
— The UNHCR (@The_HCR) April 1, 2022
A total of 140,000 Ukrainian children have already entered Polish schools. The vast majority of Ukrainian children educated in Poland have been integrated directly into the classes of Polish children, which of course poses the problem of language, especially for exams. This represents a veritable tsunami in the words of the ZNP teachers’ union… Especially since in Poland there is a problem of shortage of teachers, with already a problem of places in nurseries or kindergartens. Childcare will be essential to enable mothers to work.
In Germany, a new challenge after welcoming Syrian refugees in 2015
Almost 300,000 refugees are already registered in Germany. The actual figure is certainly much higher. This is a new challenge for the country after welcoming Syrian refugees in 2015. A challenge to deal with the emergency first. Large tents have been set up in front of the stations. Up to 15,000 people arrived daily by train in Berlin for example the first days. Thousands of volunteers and associations are mobilized. Then you have to house these people. Some refugees have family, acquaintances here, but not all. Some cities are reopening centers that had already been used for Syrian refugees in 2015. On the site of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, for example.
The municipalities benefit from this experience of 2015. “We did in a few weeks what had taken us several months at the time”, officials say. But many cities are still at their limits. In Cologne, Yuleya Gonchar welcomes her niece, her son and her aunt from Ukraine. She recounts her difficulties in accessing official aid. “I found a place in a crèche, accommodation for the young girlexplains Yuleya Gonchar. We applied for residence permits. We have already done so much. But it is not progressing. We cannot understand all this bureaucracy. Today I called the city services 40 times! Nobody’s answering ! 40 times! Look, we see it on my phone!” Cities recognize that they are understaffed. In the meantime, schools are also mobilizing. More than 20,000 children are already in school.
Germany also wants to integrate these refugees into the labor market. Thousands of companies have already posted offers on online platforms, for Ukrainians. Germany sees this as an opportunity: nearly two million job vacancies do not find takers here. The Federal Minister of Labor has also undertaken to streamline the procedures so that Ukrainian diplomas can be recognized quickly.
In Switzerland, many initiatives to welcome refugees
Switzerland hosts almost as many Ukrainian refugees as France, nearly 30,000. That’s a lot, for a country barely larger than the Centre-Val de Loire region. And the figure could double again in a few weeks. Today we are talking about a thousand refugees arriving in Switzerland every day. And this is only an estimate because like everywhere, it is very difficult to have an exact figure. We know, for example, that tens of thousands of individuals have made themselves known to the authorities and associations to accommodate families. There are even apps that have been launched to connect refugees with host families. An almost unprecedented surge of solidarity in Switzerland. In any case for at least 20 years and the war in Kosovo.
https://t.co/2kZ9nKJ12e
— Municipality of Alle (@CommuneAlle) March 30, 2022
We can no longer count the number of individual initiatives by Swiss people who take to the road to look for refugees at the Ukrainian border. This is what happened in the small village of Alle, in the Swiss Jura: 2,000 inhabitants and now 65 Ukrainian refugees. They are housed almost everywhere, including with Mayor Stéphane Babey. He salutes his approach. But admit that everyone in the village had perhaps not measured what it meant to become a foster family. “It was planned that we would welcome these people in the host families for a maximum of one month.he explains. And there the cantonal authorities warned us that it would be at least three months. We feel that there is in certain families, I will not say tensions but that the bellows has fallen a little bit. For the moment, it is therefore a bit like the D system. But which allows the official system to hold. While the federal centers, in which asylum seekers must normally be accommodated, are completely saturated.