Refugee Arrivals Dwindle As Ukraine's Neighbors Struggle To Find Shelter

Neighbors report drop in arrivals
Major cities in recipient countries experience the greatest pressure
Czechs ask EU for modular shelters for 50,000 refugees

PRITHYSL, Poland/ISACCEA, Romania, March 12 – Ukraine’s neighbors reported a decline in refugee numbers on Saturday as governments and volunteers struggled to find shelter for the nearly 2.6 million, mostly women and children, who fled after a two-week Russian invasion. back.

Arrivals were still rising, driven by an influx that stifles volunteers, non-governmental organizations and authorities in Eastern European border communities, as well as in the big cities where most refugees go.

Poland’s border guard said 76,200 people arrived on Friday, down 12% from the day before. Police in Slovakia reported a similar drop in numbers to 9,581, while arrivals in Romania fell by 22% to 16,348, police said.

Yelena Pugacheva, 52, a psychologist in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, struggled to hold back tears after she stepped off the ferry that took her across the Danube River to Romania.

“I can’t speak without tears, I’m sorry, but I’m very sorry for my country, and no one could have expected this… Kharkiv is being bombed, Nikolaev is being bombed, it’s only 120 km from Odessa and it hurts inside,” she said.

Mayor Wojciech Bakun of Przemysl, a Polish city of 60,000 located near the Medyka border crossing, said the number of people arriving over the past day had dropped to around 18,000 from 23,000 the day before to more than 50,000.

He said he needed help to prepare housing for 2,000-3,000 people.

“I have buildings, but they need work, which will require 10 to 20 million zlotys (2.3-4.6 million dollars). I cannot finance this from the municipal budget, as we have other needs, it could be funds from the European Union. or from the government,” he said.

Veronika Zhushman, 32, who is traveling with her 6-year-old daughter, mother and younger sister from Vasylkov, Kiev region, spent the night in the gym at the city’s secondary school.

Early Saturday morning, she was awakened by a call from another refugee about a bomb blast.

“I didn’t sleep well since the beginning of the invasion… after the alarm went off, I felt the anxiety again,” she said.

People rest at a temporary shelter for people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Rzeszow, Poland, on March 12, 2022. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Fighting raged outside Kiev on Saturday, with Ukrainian officials saying heavy artillery shelling and threats of Russian air attacks were jeopardizing efforts to evacuate desperate civilians from besieged cities. More

The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR reported that almost 2.6 million people had left Ukraine as of Friday, with 1.6 million of them heading to Poland.

Refugees flocked to cities with established Ukrainian communities and better chances of finding work.

In the capital Warsaw, which had a population of 1.8 million before the Russian attack, refugees now make up more than 10% of the population, the city’s mayor said Friday.

CZECH ASK FOR HELP OF EU PARTNERS

Hungary has taken in more than 230,000 refugees, of whom 10,530 arrived on Friday. Romania reported 380,866, including 16,348 on Friday.

Slovakia reported 185,660 arrivals, most of which continued further west.

The western route often goes to the Czech Republic, where officials on Friday estimated the number of refugees at 200,000.

On Saturday, the country asked EU partners to provide modular homes to house 50,000 refugees. Refugees will also be accommodated in gyms, halls and possibly tent cities, Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told the CTK news agency.

Czech police have warned refugees about scammers offering visa assistance and other assistance for money, or identity theft that could be used to steal or launder money. They also called for caution against suspicious job offers that could lead to forced prostitution or human trafficking.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a special military operation to disarm its neighbor and oust its “neo-Nazi” leaders. Kyiv and its Western allies say this is an unreasonable excuse to invade a country of 44 million people.

(1 dollar = PLN 4.3794)

Additional reporting by Mari Saito in Przemysl, Anna Wlodarchak-Semchuk, Anna Koper and Katsper Pempel in Warsaw, Louise Ilie in Bucharest, Robert Müller in Prague, Kristina Tan in Budapest, text by Jan Lopatka, edited by Ros Russell

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