Polish authorities prepare for potential influx of Ukrainian refugees

Polish regional governors have sent mayors of local authorities urgent requests for information on their capacity to accommodate Ukrainian refugees in the event of war with Russia. The interior minister says that this is part of the “various scenarios” Poland is readying itself for.

Last month, one of his deputy ministers announced that the authorities were preparing to receive up to one million refugees from Ukraine if Russia invades. Speaking this morning, however, the government’s spokesman refused to say how many refugees Poland was ready to accept.

“I wouldn’t like to stir negative emotions,” Piotr Müller told Polsat News. “Through provincial governors we are examining exactly what local authorities’ specific possibilities are and on this we will base our potential in terms of these movements that could arise from Ukraine.”

Those governors – government appointees who head the administration in each of Poland’s 16 provinces – have asked mayors of cities, towns and villages under their authority to submit such information.

Konstanty Radziwiłł – the governor of Masovia province, Poland’s largest in terms of area and population and which includes Warsaw – last Wednesday wrote an “urgent request to provide a list of buildings that could be used for potential housing of foreigners”, reports TVN24.

Radziwiłł asked mayors to prioritise venues that could be ready within 48 hours but asked for all potential buildings to be listed, including boarding schools, training centres, hostels, hotels, as well as sporting and entertainment arenas.

Such accommodation should have access to sanitary and catering facilities, he added. He also asked local authorities to provide information on businesses offering transport services.

Krzysztof Kosiński, the mayor of Ciechanów, one town in the province, confirmed that he had been contacted asking for information on the numbers of refugees the town could take as well as the costs and time involved.

Elbląg, in Warmia-Masuria province in north-eastern Poland, has immediate room available for 420 people in four school sports halls, the city’s authorities said yesterday. Its mayor has ordered that other educational institutions and communal housing be prepared as a potential accommodation base, reports Polsat News.

The mayor of nearby Olsztyn said that the city had 60 places in a local hotel. The district authority office also has a list of institutions where refugees could be housed, said its press spokesman, Wojciech Szalkewicz.

“This list was produced as a result of the pandemic for isolation purposes [but] it still applies,” Szalkiewicz told Polsat News.

The governor of Małopolska has also asked local authorities for information, reports Onet. Updating crisis management plans and procedures is standard practice, said spokeswoman Joanna Paździo, but security reasons precluded further specific comments.

Yesterday, the interior minister, Mariusz Kamiński, announced that Poland is “preparing for various scenarios in connection with the situation in Ukraine”.

“One of these,” he added, “is the actions of provincial governors concerning the potential influx of refugees from Ukraine, who might be looking for safe refuge in our country as a result of the possible conflict.”

Poland already has a large Ukrainian community, estimated to be more than one million strong (though figures vary given the seasonal and temporary nature of some migration), making it by far the country’s largest immigrant group.

Their numbers have grown significantly in the recent years following the tensions around the annexation by Russia of Crimea and the armed conflict in Donbas. This has led the Polish government to call them refugees, although most have come as economic migrants and only a tiny proportion have applied for or received asylum.

Separately, over the weekend the US State Department announced that Poland has opened its border to Americans seeking to leave Ukraine amid Russia’s military buildup.

Main image credit: Jakub Orzechowski / Agencja Gazeta

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.