News Item

How did cities welcome displaced people from Ukraine?

Yellow house with a blue roof under a yellow sun. a child in blue clothes stands nearby and holds a bunch of blue balloons
юлия чубарова © adobestock.com, 2023
Many cities throughout the European Union hosted people fleeing Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. To gauge how cities addressed Europe largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) approached selected cities in the EU.

Several cities told FRA what they did, or are doing, to facilitate access to housing, education, healthcare, employment and social services for people who fled Ukraine.

The cities covered are Barcelona, Budapest, Cologne, Ghent, Gdansk, Lund, Nuremberg, Salzburg, Utrecht and Vienna. Their responses span February to July 2022.

Many of these cities centralised access to assistance and information. This one-stop-shop approach provided access to accommodation and housing, food, healthcare, education, employment and social support to a variety of displaced people from Ukraine.

The cities’ initiatives were complemented by a large wave of solidarity from volunteers, civil society and faith-based organisations, and businesses.