Ukrainians in Polish refugee camp in Limbo

Kyrill kills time. The 11-year-old sits on his bunk in the Global Expo refugee reception center in Warsaw and tries to disassemble a scooter.

For four months he has been living with his family – mother Olena Polonitska and aunt Oksana – on the former exhibition grounds.

They fled Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded in February and, along with hundreds of thousands of others, crossed the western border into Poland.

The makeshift refugee camp was meant to be a temporary solution, but as the war drags on, their lives are still on hold.

“All I’m hoping for now is to go back home…or be relocated somewhere in Poland,” Polonitska told AFP.

Of the 1.2 million Ukrainians registered for temporary protection in Poland, most people rent or are housed by others, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

But around 20 percent still live in transit centers or gathering places like the Global Expo.

Not wanting to stray too far from Ukraine and loved ones, and with no better prospects in Poland, thousands are awaiting their time in limbo.

Many at the Global Expo are waiting for housing offers from Polish families.

It’s fewer now than the deluge at the start of the invasion, according to center volunteers.

“We still get housing offers from Poland, but they no longer come from the big cities,” says Angelika, coordinator of a relocation program.

“But Ukrainians want to stay in the big cities because they think they’re more likely to find jobs there,” she told AFP.

On Tuesday, the Polish government announced a program to encourage refugees to move to rural areas where there is a shortage of labour.

All Polish households with refugees already receive a daily stipend of 40 zlotys (almost nine dollars) per person they take in.

You will receive the grant for 120 days, or longer in certain cases.

The belief is that four months is enough time for the refugees to settle in and become independent, with a job and their own apartment.

This schedule is not always realistic. Many are left unemployed or struggling to rent housing as demand in major cities exceeds supply.

“There are refugees who come to the center after living with Polish families who no longer have the means or the will to take them in,” volunteer Marcin Kulicki told AFP.

At a Global Expo welcome desk, a Japanese flag hangs above a sign announcing accommodation options.

According to their own statements, refugees there regularly receive offers of accommodation abroad, sometimes even with jobs.

“We have established a partnership with the Japanese administration so that 2,000 refugees can work there,” said volunteer Maksym Demidov, who runs a Polish-Ukrainian charity.

He told AFP that about 50 people were ready to take the plunge. However, most refugees prefer to stay where they are, regardless of which country is offered.

According to the UN refugee agency, 79 percent of people taken in by Poland plan to stay in the EU country in the near future.

“Participants in focus group discussions noted that they had decided to seek refuge in a country near Ukraine to be closer to home,” the agency said in a report this month.

But some, like those from the now Russian-occupied territories, see their future far away from Ukraine.

“I’m from Mariupol, my apartment was leveled. There’s nothing to go back to,” Daniel Lupanov told AFP while playing cards in the Warsaw center.

Eventually, he hopes to put an ocean between himself and the war – by getting a visa to Canada.

When he expressed his plans, he struck bitter irony: “It worked out well, I’m young and I wanted to travel.”