In the wake of Russia's invasion on Ukraine, "Europe will be facing the largest influx of refugees since WWII," Croatia's Interior Minister, Davor Bozinovic, said on Wednesday, adding that "no country could deal with that on its own."
According to figures released on Tuesday by the EU’s external border agency Frontex, more than 600,000 people have left Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion seven days ago to arrive in EU countries, Bozinovic told state radio. Earlier UNHCR estimates said that the violence in Ukraine might lead to five million people fleeing the country.
“This is a humanitarian situation that is quickly becoming very dire, and only by working together can everyone deal with it,” he said.
Bozinovic said that 545 Ukrainian refugees had arrived in Croatia to date, including 39 housed temporarily at refugee centres. The rest are thought to have been taken in by family and friends already in Croatia. He said Croatia must prepare for a much larger influx of people as nearly 100,000 Ukrainians had entered Hungary, a country which also borders Croatia.
“It is difficult to expect Russia to stop at the moment, as it seems to be preparing an even larger escalation, with attacks on the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mariupol,” Bozinovic added.
Bozinovic said capacity to take in refugees are being upgraded and confirmed that there are plans to repurpose a number of state-owned facilities for that use. In addition, government officials are holding meetings with the national tourist board, the ministry for tourism, and hotel-owners, to convert some of the hotels into accommodation for refugees.
Bozninovic was asked about Russia’s threats to countries who donated military equipment to Ukraine.
“Today we are seeing a change of the paradigm that has been in force in Europe since World War II, and there is strong determination that everything that Europe has achieved so far must not be brought into question,” Bozinovic said, adding that in that time the EU has become “the most developed part of the world, along with the US.”
“If someone threatens that, and this is a threat, they will face a very clear and harsh European response because Europe has no alternative but to defend its values,” Bozinovic said.
