But much more needs to be done to help the places where refugees are clustered and to help refugees navigate their way out of overcrowded shelters. Britain’s Homes for Ukraine programme, which pays families and organizations to host refugees, has so far resulted in the issuance of 2,700 visas, while Finland has offered 2,000 Ukrainians a place in universities.
These ad hoc efforts are important but insufficient given the millions of people affected. The European Union has set up a platform to match aid offers with people in need. Seven countries, including Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, have pledged to take in some 15,000 Ukrainians who are now in Moldova. But that’s a small fraction of the estimated 98,000 Ukrainians in Moldova, many of whom are reluctant to leave because they speak a language they know, Russian.
The European Union has also identified around €17 billion in pandemic recovery funds and programs to promote social and economic cohesion that can be spent immediately on urgent needs, including housing, education, health and childcare. An EU proposal to tackle the current crisis would redistribute more of those funds among countries hosting large numbers of refugees. Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia would receive 45 percent more funding than they would have received. Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Estonia – member states that have received the highest number of Ukrainians relative to their national population – would also receive that increase.
Efforts to humanely accommodate people displaced by the war need not be limited to Europe. Canada, which is home to a large Ukrainian population, has agreed to welcome an unlimited number of people fleeing the war for a stay of at least two years. Even Japan, which has long been reluctant to take in refugees, has agreed to take Ukrainians.
President Biden’s announcement that the United States will accept up to 100,000 is a good start, but the country can do more, especially when public support for hosting Ukrainian refugees is strong. The United States has been a major player in Ukraine over the years, from encouraging Ukrainians to stand up to Russia to persuading Ukrainians to agree to the removal of nuclear weapons from its territory after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Soviet Union, a decision that many Ukrainians deeply regret today.
As the world enters a period of greater instability, its leaders can no longer ignore the need for a coordinated and humane response to all those fleeing war and other desperate circumstances.
