On 24-Feb-2022, the landscape in which NGOs in Poland operate has radically changed. New – unimaginable – challenges emerged, first related to the humanitarian and migration crisis and then to the integration of refugees. The Polish Migration Forum Foundation provided direct specialised assistance to more than 2,500 people in each month of 2022. One year after the outbreak of a large-scale war, we are publishing a report – a summary of our experience.
2022 – WE REPORT
According to UN figures, in 2022. Europe has taken in 5 million Ukrainian refugees and refugee women. More than one and a half million were granted temporary protection in Poland. In Warsaw more than 160,000 people have found shelter.
Although the enormity of the needs exceeded all our imaginations, at the Polish Migration Forum Foundation we already had the knowledge and experience of working on behalf of people with migration experience – we have been supporting these communities since 2007. We set ourselves the goal of increasing the scale of our activities, while maintaining the high quality of the support provided.
We enlarged the psychological support team, opening a helpline, moving to work in reception points, hostels, schools. In 2022, we provided 6,500 psychological consultations.
We have expanded our team of caseworkers, lawyers and consultants to support people with the most complex cases, e.g. refugees with disabilities, unaccompanied children, older people.
We have strengthened the perinatal support programme for refugee women. We implement intercultural birthing schools, employ a midwife and run support groups.
We are regularly present in Warsaw schools. The intercultural assistants we employ work there, but we also visit schools with workshops.
We summarise 2022 in a report – read on!
CHALLENGES FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS
We expect the next year to be no less challenging. In our opinion, it should be marked by caring for social cohesion – integrating refugees into the labour market, wisely empowering the most vulnerable and seeing them as participants in Poland’s new civil society.
This is not easy with a huge shortage of systemic solutions. Public institutions responsible for supporting people with migration experience have been underfunded for many years, they lack the staff and resources necessary to work in the current conditions, and for years Poland has also lacked a holistic approach to migration issues. We therefore expect crises, tensions and lack of access to necessary services in the areas of housing, labour market, education, social support or health, especially mental health. We are already seeing increasing numbers of people who are either homeless or exploited in the labour market. The educational exclusion of a large group of Ukrainian children and the mental health status of children and young people is alarming.
In addition, parliamentary elections are scheduled in Poland in autumn 2023, and migration and elections in many countries of the world are sometimes an explosive mix. While we hope to avoid the instrumentalisation of the topic of migration for political purposes in Poland, we expect the public debate on this topic to sharpen. We will engage in building awareness about the need to develop and implement a modern state migration policy. We will also point out areas that need attention or solutions, and tone down the mood by sharing our expertise and experience.
The report to be downloaded below in Polish and English
