|
The Lead: Ukraine's Refugee Crisis
 credit: Getty
Russia’s horrific war in Ukraine has left almost three million people with nowhere to go. The city council of hard-hit Mariupol, Ukraine, said Tuesday that about 2,000 cars were finally able to leave the city, with another 2,000 waiting to go.
Where is everyone going? The UN has this breakdown, as of March 14:
- Hungary – 263,888 refugees
- Poland – 1,808,436 (as of March 15)
- Slovakia – 213,000
- Moldova – 337,215
- Romania – 453,432 (some people moved from Moldova to Romania, so there are duplicate numbers here)
- Russia – 142,994
- Belarus – 1,475
On Tuesday, the UK implemented Homes for Ukraine, a program in which UK people can house Ukrainians for up to three years. Hosts will earn £350 a month. Under this program, Ukrainians can live and work in the UK, as well as access healthcare, welfare, and schools. There is no limit to the number of Ukrainian refugees allowed in the country.
In the U.S., a Trump-era policy called Title 42 remains in effect. The policy, introduced in March 2020, said immigrants can’t enter U.S. borders because they might bring Covid with them. Once again, the policy REMAINS IN EFFECT, despite the dire need for a safe location for refugees from all over the world, including Ukraine. The CDC did recently say it shouldn’t apply to unaccompanied minors. So there’s that.
Israel is another place with different policies for different people, namely Ukrainian Jews, who are airlifted to the country every day, according to NPR’s Daniel Estrin. Estrin says that many non-Jewish Ukrainians, on the other hand, have been “detained or put back on airplanes.” Some with family in Israel are allowed, but usually only with a large deposit to guarantee the non-Jewish refugees will leave after the war is over.
|
