About half of the three million Ukrainians who have crossed the Polish border since Russia invaded Ukraine intend to stay in Poland, a senior government official has said.
Pawel Szefernaker, the government’s commissioner for war refugees, told the Polsat News broadcaster on Wednesday that the data originated from logging records of Ukrainian mobile phones to Polish networks and from analyses of refugees’ movements.
He added that there are now about two million refugees in Poland.
“We also have people who treat Poland as a transit country on their way to other countries: the United States, Canada or Great Britain,” Szefernaker said.
Close to 100,000 refugees have taken up jobs in Poland so far and up to 600,000 refugees are living in Polish homes with their hosts, the commissioner said.
Szefernaker also said Poland is ready for a potential influx of new refugees if Russia’s war against Ukraine intensifies.