Warsaw mayor urges European response to Ukrainian refugee crisis

Warsaw, Mar 15 (EFE).- The Ukrainian refugee crisis needs a coordinated European response, the mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, said Tuesday.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced 3 million people to flee the country since the war began last month.

“We need a European response to the crisis situation, we need a relocation scheme, we need to start dealing with the problem in a systemic manner,” Trzaskowski told Efe in an interview.

According to the UN, 1.8 million of Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Poland and up to 12,000 arrive in Warsaw everyday.

But while regional authorities from all over Europe have given aid to Poland to help manage the crisis, Trzaskowski warns it is not enough.

“This is for now based on a huge improvisation and the coordination between local governments themselves – not on a system – and we need a system,” he urged.

Trzaskowski also said Polish authorities have noticed more instances of children arriving in Poland unaccompanied.

“This is very problematic because in Poland alone we have 70,000 kids in foster care. In Ukraine, which is roughly the same in size, the number is ten times bigger, so this is going to be a problem which needs to be addressed also on a European level,” he warned.

Polish schools in Warsaw have already taken in some 4,000 Ukrainian children, increasing the pressure on schools.

According to Unicef, a child in Ukraine becomes a refugee every second. EFE

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