Concern Worldwide launches appeal for Ukraine as emergency response team is deployed to assist refugees

The team is currently assessing the humanitarian needs along the Ukraine borders with Poland, and plan to assess the situation along the borders with Romania and Moldova in the coming days.

Humanitarian needs in the area are escalating by the hour, civilian casualties are growing, essential services are being disrupted and people are being forced to flee their homes in their thousands. More than 660,000 people have fled Ukraine in the last week, and thousands more are on the move. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is estimating that as many as five million people could be displaced during the crisis.

Families, including many with small children, are fleeing with whatever clothes and food they can carry, in bitterly cold conditions, often facing huge queues to reach safety.

The team will work with national authorities, the United Nations, local non-government organisations, and Concern’s partners in the Alliance2015 group of NGOs to respond.

“The majority of refugees are currently crossing into Poland putting huge pressure on existing reception centres,” according to Concern’s Head of Emergency Operations, Ros O’Sullivan who is leading the assessment team in Poland.

Concern has extensive experience of dealing with refugee crises around the world, including humanitarian responses in Europe such as the crisis in Kosovo and Albania in 1999.

What will happen next is unclear, but with your help, we can respond and help families affected by the conflict through this crisis.