One Year On: Poland’s Public Health Initiatives and National Response to Millions of Refugees from Ukraine

Abstract

The Russian military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, resulted in the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. As a neighboring country to Ukraine, Poland was the main country to initially receive refugees. Between February 24, 2022, and February 24, 2023, 10.056 million refugees from Ukraine, mainly women and children, crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border. Up to 2 million of these refugees from Ukraine found shelter in private homes throughout Poland. More than 90% of the resident refugees in Poland were women and children, and approximately 900 000 refugees from Ukraine have sought employment, mainly in the services sector. Since February 2022, there has been rapid development of a national legal framework to ensure access to healthcare, including providing refugees who are healthcare workers with job opportunities. Epidemiological surveillance and prevention programs for infectious diseases and mental health support systems have been implemented. These initiatives have required the use of language translators to ensure that there are no barriers to understanding and implementing public health measures. Hopefully, the lessons learned from Poland and neighboring countries that have hosted millions of Ukrainian refugees can help future preparedness for supporting refugees. This review aims to summarize the lessons learned by the Polish public health services during the past year and outlines the public health initiatives that have been implemented and are still ongoing.