New Ukrainian arrivals in Ireland: ‘We have been thinking of leaving home for a long time’

“We have been thinking of leaving for a long time,” says Olena Bulhakova. Along with her family, she was trapped in the Ukrainian city of Kherson when it was taken by the Russians in March 2022.

During the occupation they couldn’t flee as all roads to the west were shelled by the Russians and the eastern route across the Dnipro River was taken by the Russians. Even after the city was liberated in November that year, the Russians continued to shell it.

Just before Christmas her wish to leave finally came to pass and she arrived in Ireland with her 16-year-old son Kiril, among a group of 20 Ukrainians on a flight from Warsaw to Dublin.

Nearly two years on since the onset of war in Ukraine, an average of 500 Ukrainians are arriving in Ireland every week adding to the 102,000 of their compatriots who have been given temporary protection in Ireland.

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Last month, the Government announced that the special status accorded to Ukrainian refugees would end and those in State accommodation would see their benefits cut from €220 to €38.80 a week; though once they leave State accommodation they will be entitled to apply for social welfare. The Government also decided that from the end of January, State accommodation would be provided for up to only 90 days for newcomers from the country. Minister for Integration Roderic O’Gorman says the changes will bring the Irish offering “into line” with other western European countries, some of which, he says, have not welcomed as many Ukrainians as Ireland on a proportionate basis. These changes are due to come into effect from January 29th, but will not affect Ukrainians already here.

We wanted to be safe. Ireland is a safe place

—  Sasha (16)

Bulhakova says of the war: “Half of our city was destroyed. There was no place to live. There was loads of shelling and bombing every day. It was scary to live there.”

Speaking through a translator she adds: “We have been thinking of leaving for a long time. My sister lives in Ireland. She came to Ireland in October. She lives in Kells. She says it is a nice country and it will be a nice place to live.”

She wants to work as an accountant – the same job she had before the war. “It is very hard for me to do nothing. My son wants to learn the English language and go to college here.”

Her husband and sister still live in Ukraine. Her husband cannot leave because he is a male over 18 and her sister has too many responsibilities to other members of the family, she says.

“We wanted to be safe. Ireland is a safe place and it is a place of opportunities,” says 16-year-old Sasha, who was among the group of new arrivals along with his 11-year-old sister Hanna and their mother Yana Bolzhelarska.

They are from Prymorsk which is under Russian occupation. They fled to Zaporizhzhia in the south of Ukraine which has been continually bombarded since the start of the war. They left Ukraine on December 15th and are now staying in a pub guest house in Gurteen, Co Sligo with four other Ukrainian families.

“I will be 17 [next August]. I have to go for military training. I want to live in peace. My mother worked as a nurse in Ukraine. She wants to work in Ireland,” says Sasha when asked why his family waited until now to leave Ukraine.

Little has changed in the circumstances of Ukrainian immigrants since the last survey of the community in February last year, according to the chairwoman of Ukraine Action Ireland, Lisa Karamushka. More than 40 per cent of those who have sought temporary protection in Ireland say they never intend to return to Ukraine; 24 per cent say they will return as soon as circumstances allow; and 32 per cent say they do not know what the future holds.

They have nothing in Ireland, they have nothing in Ukraine

—  Lisa Karamushka, chairwoman, Ukraine Action Ireland

It doesn’t follow, she cautions, that the changes due to come into effect from January 29th will lead to a fall-off in the number of Ukrainians arriving in Ireland as for many of them it is better than their present circumstances.

The changes will inevitably lead to homelessness among Ukrainian refugees, she says. “When a person who is fluent in English, has a full-time job and money find it so difficult to rent a place, how will it be for Ukrainians with zero connections and no understanding of how the system works?”

She understands why people are questioning the number of Ukrainian refugees who have come to a country where there is already a housing crisis, but Ireland’s housing problem existed long before the war.

“People will still come because that is their way of surviving. We will find people who will be on the streets without housing because we all know how it is in Ireland.”

Besides, many have no homes to return to in Ukraine. “They have nothing in Ireland, they have nothing in Ukraine,” she says.

Officially 26 per cent of Ukrainians are working at the moment. It could be higher, she says, but the language barrier is a factor as is the absence of affordable childcare. Two-thirds of Ukrainian refugees who have come to Ireland are women and children. Many refugees find themselves in buildings in isolated locations and transport is another issue.

“There is a huge will to start working, to find oneself a proper place to live... We can’t seem to find a system that allows these women to work. They don’t know what their future is in Ireland so they have no stability.”

The problems are compounded, she admits, by the general rental crisis which is making it difficult even for Ukrainians who have steady employment to find a place to live. She has sent 100 letters on behalf of Ukrainians through Daft to prospective landlords and got only two responses “neither of them relevant”.

But despite the challenges facing those seeking accommodation here, “returning to Ukraine would still be more dangerous than sleeping in a car or at an airport”.

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