KRAKOW (POLAND) : In three weeks, nearly two million people have left Ukraine for Poland, half of them children, hundreds of thousands of them headed into the largest Polish cities.
Now, basic services are buckling under that avalanche of refugees from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In Warsaw, the local government is registering so many new Ukrainian arrivals that the city’s computer system crashed. In Krakow, housing is in such short supply that refugees are being sent to lodging as much as 5？ hours away.
And officials in both cities are now begging other countries to take in more people fleeing Ukraine.
“Help us out. Help us out. You need to accept as many people as you can," said Warsaw Mayor Rafa？ Trzaskowski.
He said he had spoken by phone with the mayors of Paris, Florence and Berlin, and met with Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, to ask for more assistance. He told Mr. Trudeau: “We can’t do it alone. We need an international system…. We are slowly becoming overwhelmed."
Some 1.9 million people have arrived in Poland since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three weeks ago, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. More than 400,000 of them are staying in Warsaw and Krakow, Poland’s two largest cities, and local officials estimate that number could double.
So far, Poland has absorbed the refugees without the large-scale refugee camps that popped up across Europe during the 2015 refugee crisis. Before the war, as many as two million Ukrainians already lived in Poland, and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians refugees are now staying with friends and family, as well as Poles who have offered up space for strangers in their homes.
The flood of people into major Polish cities is putting immense pressure on housing stocks, schools and transportation systems, with trains arriving in Warsaw and Krakow jammed with passengers and suitcases in the aisles. Roughly half of the refugees are children, while many others are elderly.
City psychologists are all working with refugees, leaving no appointments for locals. Government housing intended for needy Poles is now occupied by Ukrainians.
“These are the people who usually in every city in the world need assistance—this is going to cause problems," Mr. Trzaskowski said. “We need relocation in Poland. Please start sending trains all over. Not just to Warsaw."
Last week, when Polish President Andrzej Duda met with Vice President Kamala Harris, he asked her to speed the visa process for Ukrainians who wish to join family in the U.S.
Many of the refugees want to remain in Europe and, often, in Poland, which is close to home and has a similar language to Ukrainian. Efforts to send refugees to other European countries have also been clouded by stringent Covid-19 regulations in many European Union countries, Mr. Trzaskowski said. Poland, for now, has lifted Covid-19 regulations for those coming from Ukraine.
The conditions for refugees in some countries have also been a deterrent.
“We already sent a few trains of people to Germany," Krakow Mayor Jacek Majchrowski said. “But Germany put them in refugee camps. So people who went are now letting the ones coming now know not to go to Germany."
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Located less than three hours from the busiest border crossing with Ukraine, Krakow is carrying one of Europe’s heaviest refugee burdens. A city of less than 800,000 before the war began, it is now home to about 110,000 refugees, Mr. Majchrowski said, a 14% jump in population in less than a month. Warsaw, home to about 1.6 million before the war, has received 300,000 refugees, an even bigger leap. If they stay, one out of every six residents in the capital will be a recently arrived Ukrainian.
Hotels in both cities, and increasingly in their surroundings, are overbooked. Old shopping malls and hospitals are being turned into refugee housing. Rules limiting classroom size have been tossed out, and schools are swelling with new Ukrainian students.
Krakow has already spent all its entire crisis reserve fund, a sum of roughly $4.6 million, “and now we’re spending money from other sources," Mr. Majchrowski said.
The Polish government has promised to repay cities for their costs, city officials said, though they acknowledge getting 100% of their money back is unlikely.
Beginning Wednesday, the Polish government will start to issue government ID numbers to Ukrainian refugees. Although city officials said the ID numbers would help refugees access services, they also worried the medical system could be overwhelmed as a result, as more Ukrainians become eligible for treatment.
“There’s a feeling of powerlessness as the city has reached its limits," said Antoni Fryczek, Krakow’s city manager. “Not only in terms of housing, but education, medical supplies. Everything is just full."
Mr. Fryczek starts each day with a meeting to evaluate “ongoing fires." On Monday, the first order of business was getting food and specialized medical supplies to Lviv, Ukraine, which Krakow and Warsaw have been doing regularly. They stocked five transport buses with medical and sanitary supplies and sent them off.
After that meeting, Mr. Fryczek checks supplies for refugees. The city has enough food and too much clothing, but almost nowhere for people to stay.
Refugees looking for food and shelter gather under Platform 4 at Krakow’s central train station. Volunteers in safety orange vests can hardly walk 10 feet before someone grabs them, asking where to find diapers, how to sign up for housing, where they can find a hot meal. Signs in Polish, English and Ukrainian offer housing all over Europe and numbers to call. Families sit on top of suitcases, waiting for rides to places they have never heard of.
Whereas two weeks ago arrivals frequently had friends and family to stay with and could afford plane tickets, those arriving now often have little money and no contacts.
“I have no one in Europe," said Viktoriia Svichkar, a 25-year-old from Kharkiv, who arrived in Krakow on Sunday, as she stood in line waiting to register for housing. Her two cats sat in a carrier on the floor next to her. “I just want a place to sleep. I’m alone. I don’t care how long I can stay."
Inside the makeshift housing office, staff maintain a database of several thousand beds. The options are getting farther from Krakow by the day. Over the weekend, the city of Gorzów Wielkopolski offered up accommodation for 40 people, plus buses to transport them there. The catch: It is 5？ hours from Krakow.
Concerned about security and the potential for human trafficking, city officials aren’t directing refugees to beds in private apartments. But just outside the housing office, an unofficial market for places to sleep in the city has popped up.
On Sunday afternoon, a Ukrainian woman emerged in tears after city workers told her they had nothing to offer in Krakow. Immediately, Monika and Robert Kosa？ka approached her, offering a couch at their apartment in the city.
Complaining that there was no way to officially register to host refugees, Ms. Kosa？ka said: “Everything is so messy."
Although Krakowians remain eager to help refugees, with hundreds of them volunteering at the station and offering up rooms in their own apartments to strangers each day, city officials said that if the flood of Ukrainians into the city continues, local residents could grow resentful.
Already, they are hearing some grumbling that Ukrainians driving fancy cars get free public transit, while the Krakowians who pay taxes to support the trains don’t.
“Situations like that are increasing," Mr. Majchrowski, the mayor of Krakow, said. “Things that were supposed to be for Krakow residents are being taken away and given to refugees."
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