Poland, France and Germany on Thursday created an “informal staff” of their interior ministers to manage the European response to the influx of refugees fleeing Russian aggression in Ukraine, Polish Minister Mariusz Kaminski announced.
In total, since the beginning of the conflict, just over two million people have left Ukraine, and Poland is currently hosting more than one and a half million of these refugees.
In Korczowa, on the Polish border with Ukraine, Kaminski met with his French counterpart, Gerald Darmanin, and his German counterpart, Nancy Faeser.
“We are launching initiatives now so that war refugees from Ukraine can move freely around Europe, in a way that is as dignified, fast and easy as possible,” Kaminski said.
“And we will partner with the interior ministers of the other EU (European Union) countries to tackle this major European problem.”
The French minister (whose country is at the head of the rotating presidency of the EU) recalled that a European humanitarian mechanism had already been activated, which allowed the transfer of “hundreds of tons of goods, medicines and clothing.”
“We started this temporary protection so that the millions of refugees from Ukraine can have rapid protection: social assistance, access to health, schooling for minors and the possibility of working,” he added.
For his German colleague, “it is Europe’s duty to help refugees in Ukraine (…) and now we must organize EU funds for neighboring countries: Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova”.
“It is a European issue, not something that Poland has to solve alone, we have joint obligations towards people fleeing suffering,” Faeser explained.
