Poland is mentioned as the most important country hosting refugees, writes the German “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” on Tuesday. The newspaper emphasizes that the countries of Central Europe are preparing for a wave of refugees from Ukraine, and depending on the scenario, there will be hundreds of thousands or even millions.
“We are very alert and ready for all possible scenarios,” Interior Minister Nancy Faezer said in Vienna on Monday, where she combined an inaugural visit to Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner with the opening of the Balkan Refugee Conference.
Germany is preparing to provide “shelter and humanitarian aid.” However, they focus mainly on humanitarian assistance in countries bordering Ukraine. – We are preparing, first of all, to support neighboring countries. This is the first scenario, the minister said.
“Special Debt”
The EU has been working with member states on contingency plans for several weeks. “This was stated by EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson at the Munich Security Conference last weekend. It also affected, in particular, the countries directly bordering Ukraine, whose population is about 41 million people,” writes FAZ. Johansson mentioned Poland, which directly borders Ukraine, “as the most important country for receiving refugees, as well as Italy, Germany and France.” Many Ukrainians already live in these countries.
“Poland, whose citizens are very sympathetic to endangered Ukraine, believes that it has a special duty,” FAZ notes. On Friday, the government approved the Aid to Ukraine program. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has set up interdepartmental working groups to receive refugees and the wounded from Ukraine, his office said over the weekend. – In the event of a Russian attack, we want to mitigate its consequences, – said the head of government. As he stressed, the necessary infrastructure is being prepared in eastern Poland, but the interior of the country is also taken into account, the German newspaper writes and recalls that the Polish authorities “have been preparing a list of accommodation and meals for weeks (…) Poland is already home to at least a million Ukrainians (…)”.
Not only to Europe
FAZ points out that “out of all the EU countries, Romania has the longest border with Ukraine, about 650 kilometers,” FAZ notes. The country’s government does not rule out a “massive influx of refugees,” Interior Minister Lucian Bode told Romanian television last week. Temporary accommodation centers for refugees have already been set up in all areas bordering Ukraine. In addition, locations have been identified for larger reception centers with medical staff responsible for them.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper writes that not only countries such as Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary are expecting refugees, but also Israel, to which 2,800 people from Ukraine and 7,000 from Russia emigrated in 2021. On Sunday, 75 people from Ukraine landed in Tel Aviv. Immigration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata greeted them with the words: “Our message to the Jews in Ukraine is clear: Israel will always be their home.” Even 200,000 citizens of Ukraine could theoretically exercise Israel’s right to “return” to Israel, the Juedische Allgemeine newspaper wrote on Monday.