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Mar 8 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: UN High Commissioner for Refugees says the number of people who have fled Ukraine has now reached 2 million.

That’s equivalent to roughly 4.5% of Ukraine’s population.
Vast majority have gone to neighbouring countries, especially Poland.

As of yesterday the UK Home Office said it had issued visas for 300 of the 2 million. Or 0.015%.
As I’ve reported many times yes geography does matter and many refugees want to stay in region. But systems matter too and given UK is only major country in Europe requiring visas (and visas which cannot be applied for in country at that) the tiny numbers are not surprising.
UN estimates that Poland alone has accepted 1.2 million through its borders.
Also worth saying how many more it would be still if so many weren’t trapped. We’ve spoken to loads of people who have family or friends who left it a day or two too long, sometimes an hour too long. Now they can’t get out.
Control for geography vs systems. Ireland (further away than UK with far smaller population) reports over 2000 Ukrainian arrivals.
Seems UK is going to stick to policy of no visa application in country. Home Office only has two visa application centres in whole of Poland. One in Warsaw and one in Rzeszow. Naturally with 1.2 million crossing into Poland the strain (and waits) in these centres could be immense
As I was saying…
Again the reason this is happening is because almost uniquely UK is only European country (I) requiring visas (ii) not allowing in country visa application. That means you have bureaucracy, waits and strain on the system (and low numbers).

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More from @lewis_goodall

Lewis Goodall Profile picture
Mar 8
Historic moment for Parliament. President Zelensky addresses the House of Commons.

Zelensky: “The question for us now is to be or not to be. The Shakespearean question. For 15 days this question has been asked. I can give you a definitive answer is yes- to be.” ImageImage
Zelenksy invokes Winston Churchill, a fellow war leader. Says that Ukrainians will fight in the air, in the forests and in the streets.
Zelensky thanks Boris Johnson personally and the United Kingdom for its support. Asks for a no fly zone.
Read 5 tweets
Lewis Goodall Profile picture
Mar 7
As I said earlier, what is remarkable is how organic and spontaneous the response is from so many Poles and Central Europeans. No one told them to do it. They’ve just done it themselves. Without being maudlin, it is pure goodness.
Despite its open borders, Marcin still thinks the Polish govt “is behind where the Polish public is” in terms of the generosity of its response.

But he does say this on the international front: “we won’t have enough space for everyone still to come. Poland needs help.”
You’ll be able to see more of this as part of my latest report from Poland on @BBCNewsnight tomorrow. Tune in.
Read 6 tweets
Lewis Goodall Profile picture
Mar 7
Humbling hour spent in the home of Kasia and Marcin. They’re just one of the enormous numbers of Polish families who’ve taken in a Ukrainian family, in this case Oksana and her two boys. A family of four has become a family of seven overnight-and an open ended commitment at that. Image
Poland has taken in over a million Ukrainians without refugee camps and that is down to the extraordinary generosity of Polish families like K&M. Without that charity Oksana and her boys would have had nowhere to go. K&M tell us lots of families in their street have done the same
Kasia & Marcin signed up with the council saying they’d host a family (they’d agreed to do it even before the war started). On Wed they got a call asking if they could pick up Oksana’s family from the station. They agreed. They’d never met before that day. Now they live together.
Read 9 tweets
Lewis Goodall Profile picture
Mar 7
Another day another station. This time Rzeszów, filled with refugees to take them to Krakow, Warsaw and beyond,
Every carriage packed to the rafters
Train to Krakow. At this time on a Monday guard says this train would normally be almost empty. Instead it’s taking refugees to the rest of Poland and beyond.
Read 18 tweets
Lewis Goodall Profile picture
Mar 6
NEW: Polish border guard confirms that over a million have now crossed its borders from Ukraine.

1 million in 10 days.
Polish Border Guard say that the million threshold was breached at at 8pm: “a million tragedies, a million forced from their homes by the war. One million people who after crossing the border heard from the Polish Border Guard- ‘you’re safe.’”
Translation you’ll be pleased to hear not from me but from @mpolachowska
Read 13 tweets
Lewis Goodall Profile picture
Mar 6
1.36 million people have now left Ukraine. UN Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi: “This is the fastest moving refugee crisis in Europe since WW2.” Image
The total number of refugees leaving Ukraine in ten days is now greater than the total numbers of people who claimed asylum *throughout Europe* in the whole of the 2015 refugee crisis.

Over three quarters of a million people in Poland alone. Image
For context around 7 million fled Syria during the civil war.
Read 4 tweets

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