Marta Jaroszewicz’s beginning presentation highlighted the general security situation in Ukraine underlining it as ‘one of the biggest invasions in Europe since World War II’. Much of her data showed an overview of the increasing damage of civilian objects on Ukraine territory: “more than 300 schools, 46 hospital and almost 2000 residential buildings.” Further damage is expected and cluster bombs are one of the main motivators of evacuation.
Poland has been registered as the country that has accepted the most number of refugees. Why is this? Poland is possibly the safest and easiest route. From a structural perspective, there are also many Ukrainian minorities within Poland and immigration is homogenous.
Marta Pachocka mentioned the role that state actors and non-state actors play in the current migration crisis at the Ukraine-Poland border. Authorities have stepped in and from a media coverage standpoint (both in Poland and abroad) it is possible to see that NGOs are highly involved in providing any type of support to refugees. At the same time, the government’s main role is that of providing a stable legal, institutional and political environment. Furthermore, the decision of the European Commission of providing ‘temporary protection’ is left up to member states for its practical implementation.
What are the wider implications? Karolina Łukasiewicz explained them from a historical perspective: historically Ukrainians have not entered Poland through the normal asylum procedure as employment-based alternatives are easier and less timely. Poland had already 300,000 regular migrants with residents’ cards, but Poland prefers labour migrants. NGOs have stepped in filling systematic gaps, but their services were not always consistent and coordinated throughout the country. With 1.3 million refugees coming and more to come, Poland is inventing a new system, a new law that gives a new path to legalise Ukrainians with temporary protection, differentiation between citizens of Ukraine and others, and no options for family reunion.
The webinar ‘Refugees from Ukraine in Poland’ by the Migration Policy Centre and the Centre of Migration Research of the University of Warsaw looked into the effects of and responses to the large-scale displacement of refugees from Ukraine with a particular focus on Poland.
Watch the full recording here.