Foto-Ukrainian refugees in the Polish city of Przemyśl: Poland has taken in 10 times as many refugees from Ukraine as Germany.
Piotr Malecki / DER SPIEGEL
No other country has taken in as many refugees from Ukraine as Poland. Volunteers and a large Ukrainian immigrant community have stepped up to fill in the gaps left by the government in Warsaw. But how much longer can they manage?
https://www.spiegel.de-By Karolina Jeznach und Steffen Lüdke
She didn’t want to leave. Yulia, 35, didn’t abandon her life in Kyiv until the bombs began falling so closely that she could feel the blast waves. She left behind her café, which she had only just opened, and her boyfriend, who had to stay behind to fight.
Three weeks after the start of the war, Yulia is standing in a former shopping center in Przemyśl, a Polish city near the border, telling the story of her escape. She asks that her last name not be published in the story. Two hundred Ukrainians are crowded behind and in front of her. They all arrived at the same time and now need to be registered. The hallway is much too narrow for the mass of people, the air is stuffy, babies are crying, and dogs are barking. From the entryway, a Polish helper yells into a megaphone: “Glory to Ukraine!” Women, pensioners and children answer in chorus: “Glory to the heroes!”
Europe is currently experiencing the largest mass exodus since the end of the World War II. Since Russia began its attack, more than 3.7 million people have left Ukraine. No country has taken in as many refugees as Poland. So far, 2.2 million people have found safety there, 10 times as many as in Germany.
Poland seemed poorly prepared when the war began. The nationalist conservative government has allowed almost no refugees into the country in recent years. Since the autumn, they have been violently pushing back the Iraqis and Syrians at the border to Belarus, with most of the Polish population supported that tough approach.
But now, in the space of a few weeks, an astonishing welcoming culture has developed. An entire country is rising to the challenge, with volunteers providing what the government isn’t. However, it is unclear how long this can be sustained.
The man helping to manage Europe’s new refugee crisis has moved his office into the back room of a train station building. Wojciech Bakun, the mayor of Przemyśl, is sitting at a small table and typing on his laptop. He has swapped his suit for an olive-green uniform. He says he’ll be speaking by phone with the prime minister in just a moment.
As a member of a small right-wing populist party, Bakun previously hadn’t made the impression of being particularly pro-refugee. But now he’s helping where he can. The strollers and COVID masks are piling up behind him. Right now, he’s looking for translators and psychologists.
Przemyśl had 60,000 inhabitants at the start of the war, but now more than 50,000 refugees are arriving here on some days. “I don’t have any other choice but to send the people onward as fast as possible,” says Bakun. The government in Warsaw is coordinating special trains and providing a bit of money, he says, but “that’s it.”
The People Are Helping, not the Government
Bakun can rely on an army of volunteers. They took control of the former shopping center where Yulia arrived. The helpers are registering the new arrivals, cooking soup and setting up cots. They split the refugees up into small groups with a shared destination who are then picked up by volunteers driving small private cars and minibuses.
Twenty-one-year-old Natalia is helping to ensure that this all functions smoothly. She also asks that her last name not be published. She had begun learning Russian shortly before the start of the war. “I suspected that Putin would invade,” she says. Natalia believes Poland is next on the list. She says she is prepared to fight if that happens. Until then, she says she’ll help the refugees.
The feeling that Poland might be the next victim of Russian imperialism has transformed the country into something like a giant NGO. On Facebook, a “Grandmothers for Ukraine” group is mobilizing Polish retirees. Even President Andrzej Duda is taking refugees in at his official government mansions. But there are few state accommodations that can house them for longer than just a short time.
The large Ukrainian immigrant population in Poland has thus far managed to make up for this through their willingness to help. Before the Russian invasion, more than a million Ukrainians lived in Poland, and most of them have now taken in fellow compatriots. But more and more newcomers have neither friends nor relatives in the country. They are heading for the already overcrowded big cities.
In Warsaw, 10,000 refugees are sleeping in huge halls on the grounds of the convention center, with cots tightly packed. They want to move on after a few days, but nobody knows where. When the authorities recently tried to drive people to Białystok in the east of the country, the refugees refused to get out. The buses had to turn around.
Since 2015, the European Union member states haven’t been able to agree on firm quotas for the intake of refugees. But this time, things may not work without a distribution system. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is already calling for an airlift to fly the refugees to Spain, Britain or the United States.
Of course, her suggestion isn’t entirely altruistic. So far, the Ukrainians can move freely within the EU. At the moment, most of them want to stay in Poland. But if they don’t see a future for themselves there, they will leave. Thousands of people are already arriving in Berlin.
Time is running out, Przemyśl Mayor Wojciech Bakun says from his office near the border. “We can still manage for a few more weeks,” he says. But then the volunteers will run out of steam.