Number of Ukrainian refugees in Poland at 1.85M

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) – The number of Ukrainians who have crossed the border into neighboring Poland since the war began in February 2022 is some 9.66 million, with nearly 7.8 million having later returned to Ukraine, according to the Polish Border Guard.

This gives a net number of Ukrainians staying in Poland at around 1.85 million.

“The numbers are down from last year, when we had 140,000 people every day at some point. But it’s still large, sometimes 30,000 a day,” said Anna Michalska, spokeswoman for the Border Guard in Warsaw.

- Emotional

Michalska said the Border Guard is often emotional when they see the inflows of desperate people.

“We were touched very often. We see ourselves in these refugees. What would happen if this was in Poland?” she said. “We have often been the first people Ukrainians escaping the war see in Poland, and we want to make them feel safe. That is our main priority.”

- Ukrainians working

The largest number of foreigners working in Poland are Ukrainians, Poland’s family and social policy minister said last week.

Data from ZUS, Poland's state insurer, show that 1,063,300 foreigners were legally employed in Poland as of December, a rise by 191,700 from last January.

Nearly 14,000 Ukrainian firms were set up in Poland from January to September 2022, according to a report by the Polish Economic Institute, a public economic think tank.

At present, there are 24,100 companies with Ukrainian capital operating in Poland. That is 25% of all companies with foreign capital.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Poland spent €8.36 billion ($8.98 billion) on housing, healthcare and other services for Ukrainians in 2022, the highest amount among member countries.