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Advocating for the Rights of Ukrainians in Poland

December 7, 2023

R2P Poland Warsaw provides free professional legal aid and advocates for the rights of Ukrainians with temporary protection in Poland. Here are the main issues and challenges of defending the rights of Ukrainians in Poland and advocacy actions taken by R2P Poland.

The legal status of Ukrainians in Poland and the EU. R2P PL advocates for prolonging temporary protection (TP) after March 2024 in Poland and introducing long-term legal solutions after TP is over. R2P PL sent a letter to the Polish Ombudsman advocating the introduction of a legal resolution as soon as possible. 

You can find the letter in Polish and in English here

Learn more

R2P PL advocates for older people from Ukraine in Poland: among others, we indicated the issue of the Polish government not providing travel documents in paper form to Ukrainians. It precludes older people from travelling to Ukraine, for example, for medical appointments, because some do not use the latest versions of mobile phones and are not digitally literate.

You can find the letter in Polish and English here

Learn more

Monitoring data accuracy concerning unaccompanied Ukrainian minors and children in foster care in Poland held by the Polish and Ukrainian governments, as well as the procedures and safeguards to ensure that the individual best interests of each child are the primary consideration in any decision-making, particularly in the context of return.

Sending a letter to the Ministry of Interior Affairs and Administration concerning the termination of PESEL UKR and associated benefits of Ukrainian citizens when they leave Poland for over 30 days or even if they remain in Poland all the time.

Main issues: 

• The legal loophole in the absence of a procedure specifying the restoration of the UKR status in its erroneous deprivation due to clerical mistakes causes Ukrainians to reapply for the PESEL.
• The re-granting of UKR status when it should have been restored. As a result, the foreigner is granted UKR status again, but with the date of the application, and therefore faces the problem of obtaining Social Security benefits when they did not have UKR status because it was deranged.

Main recommendations:

• Amending the provisions of the Act on Assistance to Citizens of Ukraine in such a way that in the case of mistakenly depriving a Ukrainian person residing on the territory of Poland of the UKR status, this person can apply for the restoration rather than re-establishing this status.
• The procedure for restoring this status should be simple, transparent, and faster.

Lack of a nationwide list of temporary collective centres for refugees: R2P PL, together with Polish NGOs, advocates for obtaining from local authorities data concerning, among others:

• overall allocation criteria of temporary accommodation centres, if they exist;
• the number and addresses of all centres where persons from Ukraine are still staying;
• the number of persons who reside in these centres and the capacity of the centre;
• any potential plans to close the centres and information on how and in what way the persons residing in them will be informed in advance.

Cooperation between the Ukrainian and Polish governments and service providers in helping Ukrainians in Poland receive necessary documentation from Ukraine and possible recognition by the Ukrainian authorities of the Polish medical certificates.

Risk connected with labour exploitation. R2P PL organises workshops and social media campaigns to inform about how to get a job and work in Poland safely, cooperating with the UNHCR to prevent labour exploitation of migrants and refugees in Poland.

Reports concerning Ukrainian people in Poland:

UNHCR Poland, together with the Protection Sector report on the primary needs of Ukrainians in Poland (2023)

CARE International in Poland and the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE) report on problems and recommendations of domestic sectors Ukrainian workers