Thursday, March 28

The UN fears that the Ukrainian exodus will amount to 8.3 million refugees in 2022


The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) projects that before the end of the year there will be 8.3 million Ukrainian refugees, mainly in neighboring countries such as Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia, the organization’s spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said at a press conference on Tuesday.

In the first days of the Russian invasion, which began on February 24, UNHCR anticipated that the conflict would cause 4 million refugeesa figure that has already been exceeded, since currently more than 5.26 million have fled from Ukraine due to the war, according to figures updated daily by the agency.

If the new UNHCR forecasts were fulfilled, the Ukrainian refugee crisis, the worst in Europe since the end of the Second World War, would outnumber other large current exoduses, like those lived in Venezuela (6 million people have fled the country) or Syria (6.8 million in a decade of civil war).

UNHCR launched this Monday an appeal to the international community to finance its aid programs with 1,850 million dollars to the countries that are receiving or are expected to receive the majority of Ukrainian refugees, among which are the mentioned nations but also others. such as the Czech Republic or Bulgaria.

“The humanitarian impact and suffering caused by this war are overwhelming: families divided, houses and infrastructure destroyed, and the trauma of this conflict will be lasting for those who have had to leave their homes, including women and children who account for 90% of this exodus,” Mantoo stressed.

To the 5.26 million current refugees (almost 3 million of them in Poland) must be added the at least 7.7 million internally displaced persons within Ukraine due to the war, while the UN estimates that 13 million people live isolated in fenced off areas with serious clashes, with no possibility of run away.

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UNHCR also handles the number of about 1.1 million Ukrainians who have re-entered their country in the two months of war, although in many cases it could be “pendular movements” (people entering and leaving their country), Mantoo said.

“The figure does not represent a sustained return, as the situation remains highly volatile and unpredictable,” said the UNHCR spokeswoman, noting that the refugees come from virtually all regions of Ukraine and their main destinations for resettlement are countries of the European Union.




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