image by: President.gov.ua

HWN Suggests

Putin Knows What He’s Doing With Ukraine’s Refugees. This Is the World’s Big Test

The mass flight of refugees from Ukraine has created a humanitarian crisis that dwarfs anything Europe has seen since World War II. More than four million people have poured into neighboring countries, and as long as Russia’s savage war continues, millions more will flee. Already, the flow of refugees from Ukraine is far greater than the number from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq who fled to Europe in 2015, upending European politics.

Europe’s initial reaction to the flight from Ukraine has been an impressive show of solidarity, given how suddenly the crisis exploded.

read full article

Featured

 How you can help all refugees — from Ukraine and beyond

Let’s move past the myth of the “deserving” refugee to ease global suffering.

 Ukraine humanitarian crisis – two years on

With each passing month as the hope of a peaceful resolution in the immediate future reduces, it is becoming clear that it is at risk of becoming a protracted crisis. Humanitarian needs are constantly changing on the frontline, but elsewhere they reflect the cumulative impact of living in a country at war.

Articles of Interest

Race and erasure: why the world’s other humanitarian crises don’t see the same response as Ukraine

With the war in Ukraine now in its second year, nearly a third of the country’s population has been displaced, including 8 million people who have sought refuge beyond its borders. International support for the plight of these refugees has been heartening. Nearly 4.5 million Ukrainians having been granted temporary protection status across the European Union (EU). But we also need to ask: how does this response compare to the countless other humanitarian crises around the world right now?

The Guardian view on Ukraine’s refugees: Britain’s grudging welcome

The government has promised help, but the granting of visas is proving painfully slow.

Europe’s embrace of Ukrainian refugees, explained in six charts and one map

Data shows why Ukrainian refugees are being treated differently than others fleeing violence.

Exodus: the four kinds of Ukrainian refugee

The planners, the frantic, the bemused and the pros.

How a massive influx of Ukraine refugees could change Europe

The vast majority have ended up in other European countries, where they've been welcomed with open arms. That's in stark contrast to the last migrant crisis in Europe, which peaked in 2015. At that time, just over a million migrants entered Europe, leading to a backlash in several countries that paved the way for anti-immigration politicians and calls for asylum reform.

How Bad Is Ukraine’s Humanitarian Crisis a Year Later?

According to the UN refugee agency, more than thirteen million people, or nearly a third of Ukraine’s prewar population, have been displaced since the invasion. Of that, more than five million are internally displaced, while over eight million are refugees living in neighboring countries. In comparison, the continent saw some one million refugees during the 2015 wave from Africa and the Middle East, and up to four million refugees during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.

How tech volunteers helped build out Ukrainian refugee centers

With tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the country every day, refugee centers in Poland struggled to match new arrivals with resources to help them.

How the Ukrainian refugee crisis will change Europe

The number fleeing Ukraine has passed 4m. The welcome may not last.

Lessons from history for our response to Ukrainian refugees

Millions of people have fled Ukraine as a result of Russia’s invasion in February 2022. This column argues that the massive refugee flow requires a united response from European countries, including the UK. Beyond providing shelter and food, it emphasises the importance of access to education for refugees. Episodes of forced migration following WWII underscore the importance of human capital accumulation. Ultimately, providing timely access to education can be a silver lining of forced migration, allowing refugees to invest in a brighter future.

Refugees from other wars see themselves in fleeing Ukrainians

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with people about the experience of being a refugee, how fleeing their home country has affected their life and what life is like now.

Some Ukrainian Refugees Are Returning Home, Despite the Risks

A growing number of families, convinced the war could last for years, have decided that facing danger at home is better than life as a refugee.

The big exodus of Ukrainian refugees isn’t an accident – it’s part of Putin’s plan to destabilize Europe

The European Union has welcomed Ukrainian refugees, allowing them to enter its 27 member countries without visas and live and work there for up to three years. Everyday Europeans have also opened their doors – and pockets – to host Ukrainians and help them find day care, for example, and other services. But there is still an uncomfortable reality: Ukrainian refugees are also Russian President Vladimir Putin’s political pawns, intended to politically destabilize the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine’s cities

As Russian troops continue their assault on Ukraine, the humanitarian situation on the ground, particularly in besieged population centers like Mariupol, isbecoming increasingly dire. Ceasefire violations mean there is no safe corridor for evacuations in many areas, while attacks on critical infrastructure have cut out heat, electricity, and water in some places. Critical supplies are also becoming dangerously scarce.

The ripple effects of Russia's war in Ukraine continue to change the world

The Feb. 24, 2022, invasion has touched off a refugee crisis, as Ukrainians flee the conflict in their homeland and many Russian men seek to avoid conscription. Meanwhile, it has spurred a process toward expanding NATO, with Finland and Sweden pursuing membership after decades of official neutrality.

Thinking of welcoming a Ukrainian refugee into your home? Our research can help you be a good host

Hosting is also an investment and enrichment for the host’s own lives. The hosts in our studies show that as months go by they feel a great sense of connection and companionship, with many stating they had found “friends for life”. For those who had children in the household, they found that their childrens’ eyes had been opened to a whole new world, learning a new language and culture and becoming more tolerant of those who are different from them.

Ukraine refugees need urgent, ongoing health care. We’ve worked in refugee camps and there’s a right way to do it

Ultimately, no medical intervention – nothing humanitarian health workers can do – is as beneficial for displaced people’s health as preventing the conditions that led to them leave their homes in the first place. So conflict prevention and reduction should be policymakers’ and citizens’ focus.

Ukraine Refugees: What to Know About the Humanitarian Situation

Most of the refugees are women and children because of a law in Ukraine that prevents most men of fighting age from leaving the country.

Ukraine refugees’ trauma creates ‘crisis on top of a crisis’ for Eastern Europe

Ukrainians traumatized by war have streamed into neighboring countries that lack capacity to offer counseling and support.

Ukraine war creating a child refugee almost every second: UNICEF

Some 1.5 million children have now joined the exodus from Ukraine, at a rate of just under one per second, since the Russian invasion began on 24 February.

Ukraine’s Diaspora

It is the largest displacement of Europeans since World War II, according to the United Nations. More than half of Ukraine’s children are no longer living in their homes.

Ukrainian female refugees are fleeing a war, but in some cases more violence awaits them where they find shelter

My research suggests that it is difficult to prevent even humanitarian aid workers themselves from committing abuse against civilians, in part because of organizational cultures.

Resources

Operational Data Portal

The Operational Data Portal (ODP) was created in 2011 to enable UNHCR’s institutional responsibility to provide an information and data sharing platform to facilitate coordination of refugee emergencies.